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Clothing firm Sunrise Brands LLC has bid for the e-commerce business and intellectual property of bankrupt U.S. retailer The Limited, challenging a $26.3 million offer from private equity firm Sycamore Partners, Reuters reported today. Sunrise Brands' bid underscores the value it sees in The Limited's online presence and intellectual property, even as the specialty retailer was forced to close its roughly 250 brick-and-mortar stores earlier this year. It filed for bankruptcy last month, with Sycamore Partners as a stalking-horse bidder. The bankruptcy auction for The Limited is scheduled for Feb. 21 in Philadelphia. While the value of Sunrise Brands' offer could not be learned, the bankruptcy court required bids topping the one from Sycamore to start at $26.5 million. 

A judge has approved the sale of the Big Apple Circus to Compass Partners LLC, an investment firm that intends to revive the circus by bringing holiday shows back to New York City’s Lincoln Center this year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane said during a court hearing yesterday that he was “happy to hear the news of a robust auction” for Big Apple Circus, which last week named Compass the winning bidder with a $1.3 million offer for the circus’s equipment and name. The sale represents an opportunity for new ownership to bring back Big Apple Circus which, faced with declining revenue and struggling to pay its debt, cancelled its 2016 performance schedule before seeking chapter 11 protection in November.

The $20 million sale of women’s clothier Nasty Gal Inc. to British e-tailer Boohoo.com was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported yesterday. The court’s approval was necessary before the deal could be closed. The transaction is expected to be finalized at the end of the month. Nasty Gal filed for bankruptcy in November after it failed to find a buyer for its struggling business. Boohoo, which wanted to buy Nasty Gal’s intellectual property and customer database to strengthen its U.S. business, filed a stalking horse bid in December. A bankruptcy auction was supposed to be held this week, but no other qualified bidders made an offer.

Compass Partners LLC won a bankruptcy auction to acquire the Big Apple Circus, setting the stage for the show’s possible return to New York City for the holiday season, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Compass Partners beat a handful of competitors at this week’s auction with a $1.3 million bid, according to court papers filed yesterday. The sale, which must be approved by a bankruptcy judge, is for Big Apple Circus’s name and most of its circus equipment. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York will review Compass’s bid at a Feb. 14 hearing.

CBS Sports Digital said it has signed a definitive deal to acquire the assets of Scout Media, the bankrupt sports-video site that runs team-specific sites for pro and college teams in major sports, the <em>NY Poste</em> reported today. Terms were not disclosed, but CBS previously submitted a $9.5 million stalking-horse bid for the sports-video site. Three creditors had filed suit in November, trying to force the cash-strapped company into bankruptcy. In July, it was hit by high-level turnover in the executive suite and a defection of many of its senior producers. That, in turn, appeared to hurt its traffic numbers for the rest of 2016. A team of Russian investors had appeared in 2015 when earlier backers balked at putting in additional funds. Co-founder James Heckman was forced out in July amid claims of financial impropriety — claims which Heckman denied.

British sporting goods company Sports Direct International Plc is in talks to bid for Eastern Outfitters LLC, the parent of U.S. discount chain Bob's Stores and outdoor retailer Eastern Mountain Sports, Reuters reported. Sports Direct, Britain's largest sporting goods retailer with about 700 stores in that country and continental Europe, has been looking for ways to expand in the United States. Last year, it bid for the intellectual property of bankrupt retailer Sports Authority, but lost to Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. Sports Direct is in talks with Eastern Outfitters about it becoming a stalking-horse bidder in a bankruptcy auction for the company.

The major U.S. source for elements vital to electronics, from cellphones to defense systems, is going up for auction in bankruptcy court, with a $40 million opening offer from an entity identified as Rare Earth Global Partners, the Wall Street Journal reported today. California’s Mountain Pass mine, the sole significant developed source for crucial rare earths electronics elements in the U.S., is destined to go on the auction block in March, according to papers filed on Tuesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Up for sale is land and some equipment at the mine, according to court papers. Mineral rights at the site belong to an entity called Secured Natural Resources LLC, which is owned by creditors of the mine’s former owner, Molycorp Inc., including JHL Capital Group LLC. The sale plan is the product of months of work by bankruptcy trustee Paul Harner, who was left with the Mountain Pass mine at the end of the contentious bankruptcy proceeding of its former parent, Molycorp.