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Bankruptcy Court Judge Stuart Bernstein yesterday authorized creditors of Gawker Media Group to begin voting on its debt-repayment plan, a day after the former publisher unveiled the settlement of a yearslong legal battle with former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan that put both the company and its founder in bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Following a hearing in Manhattan, Judge Bernstein said that Gawker could solicit votes on the plan, which describes both the company’s intent to pay out $31 million to the retired wrestler as well as provisions that would allot millions of dollars more to other creditors. Since filing for bankruptcy in June, Gawker sold off most of its assets to a unit of Univision Communications Inc., which renamed them Gizmodo Media Group. The $135 million sale put Gawker’s editorial operations out the reach of the crippling defamation lawsuits brought by Hulk Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, and others and provided the funds needed to settle those lawsuits.

A fight is brewing in U.S. court that threatens to derail a settlement deal struck last month to conclude a seven-year battle over divvying up Nortel Networks Ltd.’s remaining $7.3-billion (U.S.) in assets, the Globe and Mail reported today. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) has objected to the settlement plan, saying it may not receive enough to cover its $708-million claim, which represents the shortfall in Nortel’s U.S. pension plan after the company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009. Nortel’s U.S. division has 22,000 pension plan members. PBGC said in a court filing it will “defend its claims aggressively” to ensure it receives the highest possible payout, and warns the settlement will not achieve the desired resolution of the case but will instead “needlessly instigate a lengthy and bitter dispute.”

Lawyers who put International Shipholding Corp. into bankruptcy in July have announced a deal that would lead the vessel owner to be taken over by a larger maritime services firm, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In court papers, International Shipholding officials said that Florida-based SEACOR Capital Corp. has offered to pay $10 million plus whatever company officials have spent on a roughly $18 million bankruptcy loan, for its operations. At the time of its bankruptcy filing, it operated 21 U.S. and foreign flag vessels that provide maritime transportation services. The deal still needs approval from Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein. The proposed takeover doesn’t include an International Shipholding division that handles logistical and seaborne transportation services in Southeast Asia. International Shipholding officials said that a company controlled by Chief Executive Erik L. Johnsen has offered to buy that division for $18 million.

Power producer NextEra Energy Inc. said yesterday that it would buy the remaining stake in Oncor Electric Delivery Co. for about $2.4 billion in cash, Reuters reported. The company said it would buy the estimated 20 percent indirect stake owned by Texas Transmission Holdings Corp. NextEra said in July it would buy bankrupt Texas power company Energy Future Holdings Corp.’s 80 percent indirect stake in Oncor in a deal valued at about $18.4 billion. That deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2017, provides NextEra access to the largest network of power lines in Texas.

SandRidge Energy Inc. defended its move to purchase Atinum Midcon I LLC’s oil and gas drilling investments out of bankruptcy, urging a federal judge to disregard protest from Wells Fargo Bank N.A. officials who said the bank’s proposal to forgive $75 million is a better offer, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In court papers, SandRidge lawyers said the offer from Wells Fargo, which handles Atinum’s loan of more than $265 million, wasn’t valid because it covered only a subset of Atinum’s roughly 1,600 oil and gas wells in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas. Under its offer, Wells Fargo offered to forgive $75 million in debt owed by Atinum, a Houston energy investor. SandRidge’s bid is valued about $67 million, made up of $47 million in cash and about $19 million in forgiven debt. Earlier this week, Wells Fargo officials argued that lawyers who put Atinum into bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston on July 22 wrongly declared SandRidge’s offer as superior.

Dick's Sporting Goods Inc., teamed up with liquidators, won a bankruptcy auction for the U.S. business of Golfsmith International Holdings Inc. with a bid of about $70 million, Reuters reported on Friday. Dick's plans to keep open at least 30 Golfsmith stores and wind down the rest with liquidators from Hilco Global and Tiger Capital Group. It plans to keep about 500 of the company's employees. Golfsmith had 109 stores in the U.S. at the time of its bankruptcy filing last month, and has been closing stores since then. With the bid, Dick's, the largest U.S. sporting goods retailer, also won Golfsmith's intellectual property and inventory, though the outcome of the auction still has to be approved by a bankruptcy court judge. Read more.

The trend of liquidation, rather than reorganization, for large retail debtors is likely to continue, according to an article in the October ABI Journal. Click here to read the cover article. 

Unsecured creditors unhappy with Cosi Inc.’s auction proposal pushed the flatbread sandwich chain’s lead bidder to increase its offer and won extra time for rival bidders to enter the fray, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Melvin Hoffman of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston yesterday said that Cosi could officially put itself up for sale after hearing that hedge fund AB Value Management LLC and Ohio investment firm Milfam LLC will now start the bidding for the casual dining chain at $10 million instead of $6.8 million. They also will take on about $1.6 million in gift-card liabilities, the bidders’ attorney, William Baldiga, said yesterday. The increased stalking-horse offer, as well as a bid deadline that is two weeks later than what Cosi had originally proposed, is the result of negotiations with unsecured creditors who had expressed concerns with the company’s original sale proposal. A federal bankruptcy watchdog also had objected, calling the process “unfair” to rival bidders.