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Advisors to the shuttered Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, failed to get approval yesterday for an agreement to sell the hotel for $82 million and were told by Bankruptcy Judge Gloria Burns to look for a better price, Reuters reported yesterday. The decision by Judge Burns could open the door for a Los Angeles developer, Izek Shomof, whose attorney told yesterday’s court hearing he could offer more money. The ocean-front Revel has already lost two deals in the last six months, with the price dropping from $110 million to the current price. The massive hotel cost $2.4 billion to open in 2012. Revel had asked Judge Burns to approve the sale agreement with Florida developer Glenn Straub, who had failed to close a prior sale agreement. The current agreement required Straub to close the deal by March 31.

A unit of GameStop Corp., the video-game chain, won an auction for the right to take over more than 160 stores that bankrupt consumer-electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. was planning to close, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. In court documents filed on Wednesday, RadioShack said that GameStop’s Spring Communications Holding Inc. will pay $15,000 a store to take over leases at locations around the U.S. Spring has about two months to decide which of the stores it wants. RadioShack filed for bankruptcy this month with an agreement to sell about half of its 4,000 stores to a unit of Standard General LP, its biggest shareholder. Standard General, in turn, has a co-branding agreement with Sprint Corp.

Aereo Inc., the online-TV service backed by Barry Diller that was found to violate copyright law, garnered less than $2 million for its assets at a bankruptcy auction, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The New York-based company had said that it expected bidding of $4 million to $31.2 million. TiVo Inc., which makes digital video recorders, was the winning bidder for the online service’s trademark, customer list and certain other assets, Aereo said. RPX Corp., a patent risk-management company, bought Aereo’s patent portfolio, and information-technology consultant Alliance Technologies acquired some equipment.

Hedge fund Standard General LP will lead the bidding at a bankruptcy auction of 1,700 or more RadioShack stores, as the electronics retailer tries to save some of its struggling business, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon yesterday approved rules for a March 23 competition over the part of RadioShack’s business that has been marked for a turnaround effort, roughly half the 4,000-store chain. Standard General won the role of opening bidder after making concessions to creditors. A big lender and big shareholder of RadioShack, Standard General has said it would operate co-branded stores-within-a-store with Sprint. That will ensure the reorganized business will get the benefit of traffic from customers of cellphone services, without the drag on profits that hurt RadioShack’s business, Standard General says. 

The shuttered Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J., again has a buyer — and again it's Florida developer Glenn Straub, who was lured back by a discounted price of $82 million, Reuters reported yesterday. The deal follows two failed sale agreements for the casino hotel, which cost $2.4 billion to build and is struggling to emerge from the second bankruptcy since it opened in 2012. Straub's previous purchase agreement was dogged by disputes with restaurants and nightclubs that operated in the hotel, which was distinguished by its eye-catching design. The developer said yesterday that he would invest $100 million to expand the exterior of the building and making the lobby more accessible. Straub said his three-year plan to integrate "quality of life and sports will help change the image of Atlantic City from a predominantly gaming destination back to a world-renowned resort town." Straub's Polo North Country Club Inc. has deposited the full purchase price with Revel.

Following the collapse of yet another deal to sell Atlantic City, N.J.’s defunct Revel Casino Hotel, time may be running out for the resort to find a savior, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Revel, which has seen two bankruptcy court-approved deals fall through, must once again begin discussions with potential buyers. And with no other proposed buyer yet to emerge, Revel’s continued survival is heavily dependent on primary lender Wells Fargo & Co.’s willingness to continue to provide funding. Though Revel shut its doors in September leaving thousands out of work, millions of dollars in legal expenses and utility payments continue to accrue each month. Much of that has been paid for by the Wells Fargo loans. “Wells Fargo has to make this calculated decision about whether to fund losses with the hope they will be able to make up those losses with an increased purchase price,” said Joel Levitin, a lawyer at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel who isn’t involved in the case. Shaun Martin, Revel’s chief restructuring officer, said at a hearing last week that no formal offers have been made for Revel, but that there have been “a lot of inquiries.”