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Hunt Consolidated Inc. has dropped its bid to salvage the $17 billion buyout of Oncor, but is trying to put together a new transaction for the electricity transmission business largely owned by Energy Future Holdings Corp., the Wall Street Journal reported today. Investors, including a large group of Energy Future creditors, walked away from the buyout after the Public Utility Commission of Texas put conditions on the approval of the transaction. Hunt was going to ask the Texas PUC to reconsider its rulings, which changed the economics of the deal. If regulators relented, the deal could be saved, Hunt’s lawyers had said. Instead, Hunt yesterday asked Texas regulators to drop the matter, on the grounds that the deal wouldn’t close. In the request for dismissal, Hunt lawyers said a new buyout transaction is in the works that would keep Oncor in the hands of Hunt, a Texas-owned company. “While we wanted to have a rehearing on the order, it is obvious now that, as written, the transaction will not close; So we believe that it is best to clean the decks and start over,” Hunt spokeswoman Jeanne Phillips said.

Sports Authority Inc.’s name, and the right to keep it on the home stadium of the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos, went unsold at a bankruptcy auction on Monday, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Instead, three liquidators bought the rights to run going-out-of-business sales at the insolvent chain’s stores, which will raise enough money to pay two top lenders. It’s unlikely the company will raise enough money to repay the approximately $646 million it owes lower-ranking creditors. Tiger Capital Group, Gordon Brothers Group and Hilco Trading Co. won the auction with a joint bid that will guarantee an upfront cash payment for the inventory. The winning bid is enough to pay off an asset-backed loan that was as much as $345 million when Sports Authority filed bankruptcy in March but has been shrinking since. There’s also enough to cover a separate, $95 million loan. Read more.

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An affiliate of casino giant Caesars Entertainment Corp., which is in danger of following its biggest unit into bankruptcy proceedings, is considering a sale of its fast-growing mobile- and social-games business, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Friday. Caesars Entertainment's interactive unit is working with investment bank Raine Group LLC to evaluate unsolicited bids that have exceeded $4 billion. Suitors include financial firms and gaming, media and entertainment companies. Caesars Interactive Entertainment, or CIE as the unit is known, is one of the largest online, mobile- and social-gaming companies, with annual sales of nearly $800 million. It notched year-over-year revenue growth of 28.8 percent in the first quarter.

Power generator NextEra Energy Inc. has renewed its interest in buying Oncor Electric Delivery Co., as a rival takeover deal shows signs of unraveling, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. NextEra made its position known after Oncor parent Energy Future Holdings Corp. replaced its bankruptcy reorganization plan on May 1. Under the original plan, its most-profitable business would have been sold to a group led by Hunt Consolidated Inc. While that possibility still exists under the new structure, the change freed Oncor up to be pursued by other bidders, Chief Executive Officer Robert Shapard said at a Texas regulatory hearing May 4. “We are to work with all parties interested in buying the company at this point,” Shapard said at the hearing. An Energy Future lawyer mentioned a “third party indication of interest” in Oncor in a court hearing on an unrelated matter May 10. The lawyer did not elaborate. Juno Beach, Florida-based NextEra’s interest in Oncor is likely driven by its growth potential, due to increased demand expectations in the Texas market, Julien Dumoulin-Smith, a UBS Group AG analyst in New York, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. Growth may also be driven by the need for more spending to address coal-fired power plant retirements, he wrote.

Jumio Inc., an identity verification company, won court approval to sell its assets to an affiliate of Centana Growth Partners Friday, settling a court-supervised sale process rife with controversy, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. A bankruptcy judge approved the deal following an auction on Thursday in which the New York-based private-equity firm won the right to buy Jumio’s business. Jumio chose Centana’s $850,000 offer over a much larger offer from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, which the company’s shareholders vehemently opposed. The sale is scheduled to close today. Jumio’s software helps companies quickly verify passports and driver's licenses via mobile apps and the web, and its customers include Airbnb Inc. and United Airlines Inc. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company says that its products can speed up checkout time, cut down on users’ data-entry errors, increase transaction completion rates and reduce fraud. The Centana sale included Jumio’s name, and the company will continue operating under the Jumio brand, according to a source familiar with the deal. The sale process was delayed last week after the company failed to attract any formal offers to compete with Mr. Saverin by a court-ordered deadline. But by Thursday, Jumio’s lawyer said two other bidders had come forward with serious offers. A 12-hour auction ultimately produced Centana’s winning bid, which drew no opposition at Friday’s hearing.

Academy Sports + Outdoors and Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. have expressed interest in buying the assets of rival U.S. retailer Sports Authority Inc. that are on sale in a bankruptcy auction, Reuters reported on Friday. The auction will determine whether Sports Authority, which opened its first store in Florida in 1987 and expanded nationwide, will be sold off in pieces, or its creditors will hold on to it and try to find a buyer for its entirety. Both Dick's and Academy Sports have submitted letters of interest to buy some of the assets of Sports Authority, which filed for chapter 11 protection in March after seeing sales flatline in the face of online competition. New York City-based Modell's Sporting Goods is also interested in Sports Authority, which has 464 stores across the country. But family-owned Modell's, whose stronghold is on the U.S. East Coast, has not yet decided whether it will participate in the auction.

Vestis Retail Group LLC, the operator of Eastern Mountain Sports, filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to adjust to changes in U.S. shopping habits, especially among young people, Bloomberg News reported today. Vestis, which also runs the Sport Chalet and Bob’s Stores chains, is owned by Philadelphia-based private equity firm Versa Capital Management. The chapter 11 petition filed today in Wilmington, Del., listed as much as $500 million in liabilities and less than $50,000 of assets.  The company said that Vestis BSI Funding II LLC, funds advised by Versa, has agreed to purchase substantially all of its remaining assets. Vestis will seek approval of a court-supervised auction process with the Vestis BSI offer as the opening bid, according to court papers. Vestis will seek approval of up to $125 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its pre-petition lender Wells Fargo Capital Finance LLC to help fund operations while the company restructures. 

Peregrine Midstream Partners LLC filed a chapter 11 plan that proposes to slash the natural gas storage company’s debts by more than $249 million, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The plan, filed on Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., is the product of last month’s deal under which key lenders pledged their support for a restructuring that will see them forgive several hundred million dollars in debt in exchange for new debt and/or equity in the reorganized business. The lenders that have signed the plan-support agreement include ING Capital LLC, Royal Bank of Canada and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., according to court papers. Houston-based Peregrine and its affiliates sought chapter 11 protection on Feb. 2 after the construction of its Ryckman Creek natural gas storage facility in Wyoming ran into trouble, including a fire that caused substantial damage, and contributed to the company’s debt load. Read more. (Subscription required.) 

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