Former TV star and teen idol David Cassidy auctioned off his Florida home on Wednesday after a bankruptcy filing, GulfNews.com reported yesterday. Cassidy bought the 650 square-metre, five-bedroom waterfront house in Fort Lauderdale for about $1.1 million in 2001. The highest price offered by four registered bidders was $1.8 million. The price will go before a bankruptcy judge for approval next week.
Columbia House, the once wildly successful mail-order music brand, will soon ask a bankruptcy judge to sign off on an expedited sale process, one that would hand control of the brand to a new owner by the end of October, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Filmed Entertainment Inc., the current owner of Columbia House and its remaining DVD club business, will ask Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman to approve the rules governing its sale process at a hearing Sept. 24, according to Scott Griffin, a lawyer for FEI. That process will call for an auction Oct. 16, followed by a hearing to approve the results of the auction Oct. 20.
The bankrupt division of Caesars Entertainment Corp. has asked a judge to approve the sale of property at the failed Harrah's Tunica Casino in Mississippi, which shut down last year amid tough local competition and a slump in gambling, Reuters reported yesterday. Casino operator Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., currently in chapter 11 with $18 billion of debt, had been trying to sell the Tunica casino for two years before eventually closing its doors. Stalking horse bidder TJM Properties Inc., a Florida real estate investment firm that develops senior living facilities, is seeking to buy the Tunica property for $3 million cash, bankruptcy filings showed. If Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin Goldgar approves the sale process, other interested parties must submit qualified bids by a final deadline of 4 p.m. CET on Oct 24. An auction, if needed, has been set for Oct. 28 and a hearing to approve the sale will be held on Nov. 2.
Just more than a year since his 11th-hour move to resurrect Crumbs Bake Shop Inc., investor and television personality Marcus Lemonis announced that he’s selling his stake in the bakery, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Fischer Enterprises LLC, which owns Dippin’ Dots and which currently holds the majority stake in the business, has purchased his piece of the company, Lemonis said yesterday. The investor and television personality added that he’s taking a “sizable loss” in the deal that was brokered during Crumbs’ bankruptcy case last year but didn’t name a purchase price. Lemonis said that he made the decision to sell after realizing that he had underestimated his opportunities to grow the business as a minority owner of the company. Although the deal does means that Lemonis won’t have any involvement in the company going forward, he is retaining the rights to the Crumbs name for cookies, ice cream and candy products.
U.S. Trustee Guy Gebhardt has asked a bankruptcy judge to half a "fire sale" by Hutcheson Medical Center of a clinic it owns at Trenton, Ga., the Chattanoogan reported today. Hutcheson, continuing to make cost-cutting measures, is seeking court approval to sell the Trenton Family Practice for $350,000. Gebhardt said that the hospital had failed to show that it was receiving a fair market value in the proposed sale to the Dade County Industrial Development Authority. The trustee said at the end of July the hospital had accumulated just over $5 million in new debt since going into the bankruptcy 10 months ago. He said it appears the hospital debt is now at $6.3 million.
Bankruptcy Judge Enrique S. Lamoutte authorized a November auction of the Trump International Golf Club in Puerto Rico, where an investor group will start the bidding at $2 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Leading off the bidding for the golf and country club, which isn't owned by presidential contender Donald Trump but instead licenses his name, is a $2 million offer from OHorizons Global LLC. Under the auction timeline Judge Lamoutte approved, rival bids will be due on Nov. 16. If any are received, an auction will be held Nov. 23. The judge agreed to review the winning bid at a Dec. 1 sale hearing.
A bankruptcy judge cleared Patriot Coal Corp. to sell its remaining assets, including its Federal mining complex in West Virginia, at a September auction, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips yesterday said that he would sign off on the Sept. 9 auction. An affiliate of the Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund will lead off the bidding with its offer to take responsibility for $400 million in liabilities — workers' compensation, black lung and environmental — tied to the assets. The auction proposal had received objections from Patriot's unsecured creditors' committee and lender agent Barclays Bank PLC regarding the $5 million breakup fee Patriot sought to offer VCLF should it lose the bidding. However, those were resolved during the hearing with an agreement to require any winning bidder's offer to provide enough cash to cover the fee.
Tom Clarke, CEO of Kissito Healthcare in Roanoke, Va., turned heads last week when his Virginia Conservation Legacy Fund said that it would acquire some of the last remaining assets of Patriot Coal Corp., subject to bankruptcy court approval, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported on Saturday. Through a new coal company it formed, ERP Compliant Fuels LLC, Clarke’s environmental group would assume some $400 million of bankrupt Patriot’s liabilities for mine restoration and worker compensation. It would take over some closed mines and one that’s still producing, and it would keep mining coal there. Meanwhile, his group would plant millions of trees — enough to absorb 10 to 30 percent of the climate change-causing carbon dioxide that burning the coal would emit. They would get the amount certified and attach it to the coal, creating a premium product.
Rapper 50 Cent will put his 50,000-square-foot mansion in Farmington, Conn., on the market soon, according to his bankruptcy attorney Patrick Neligan, the Hartford Courant reported today. Curtis Jackson III, the entertainer's given name, has tried to sell the house, which costs him $67,000 a month to finance and maintain, on and off since 2007. Neligan also said that Jackson will put a condo he owns on the market.