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A bankruptcy judge approved Lockheed Martin Corp.’s purchase of space-technology company Vector Launch Inc.’s GalacticSky satellite business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge John T. Dorsey said that he would sign off on Lockheed’s $4.25 million purchase of the satellite software business at a hearing on Friday. Vector Launch was also developing two rockets to launch satellites from anywhere when its venture-capital backer pulled the plug on the financing. Those developmental-stage rockets, each designed to handle more than 100 flights a year, weren’t included in the sale to Lockheed. Vector Launch filed for bankruptcy late last year, blaming its demise on venture-capital backer Sequoia Capital’s decision not to provide additional funding for its development efforts. The company had raised about $100 million in venture capital, with its Series A funding round led by Sequoia. Founded in 2016, Vector had been developing two satellite launchers designed for small-size spacecraft, neither of which have reached orbit. At the time of the bankruptcy, the company employed more than 150 rocket scientists, engineers and other staff on payroll. Aside from the rockets and facilities in California and Arizona, Vector’s assets include intellectual property, patents, rocket engines and a transporter-erector launcher.

A Southern California hospital with one of the busiest trauma centers in Los Angeles will hit the bankruptcy auction block again after a proposed buyer failed to close on its previous sale, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Verity Health System of California Inc.’s 384-bed St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, Calif., is again up for sale after Verity terminated an earlier deal to sell the hospital to the proposed purchaser, a California-based for-profit health-care company. Bankruptcy Judge Ernest Robles in Los Angeles approved the auction procedures for St. Francis following a hearing on Wednesday. Verity Health is putting St. Francis up for sale without a stalking horse, or lead bidder, to set a floor price for the hospital. Bids are due April 3 and an auction, if necessary, will be held on April 7. Judge Robles scheduled a hearing for April 9 to consider approval of a sale. Read more. 

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A judge said bankrupt greeting cards and stationery retailer Papyrus can sell leases to about 30 of its stores to private equity-backed rival Paper Source Inc., WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Paper Source will pay $575,000 for the locations, as well as their furniture, fixtures and equipment, a lawyer for Papyrus said yesterday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Founded in 1983, Paper Source will expand to 165 stores through the deal. The Chicago-based company, which is owned by private-equity firm Investcorp, said it plans to remodel the stores and rename them Paper Source. Paper Source sells gifts, greeting cards, gift wrap, craft kits, party supplies and custom invitations, announcements and stationery. Papyrus filed for bankruptcy in January with a plan to close all its stores in the U.S. and Canada after it was unable to find a buyer to keep the locations and sister outlets, American Greetings, Carlton Cards and Paper Destiny, in business. Schurman Fine Papers, which runs the greetings cards business, entered bankruptcy with 254 stores. The Tennessee-based business said that it expects to finish closing its remaining stores by the end of February.

Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi approved the sale of endurance event organizer Tough Mudder Inc. to rival Spartan Race Inc. for $700,000 in cash as well as the assumption of at least $7.5 million in liabilities, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Boston-based Spartan, which has more than 250 events in 40 countries with more than one million people participating annually in its obstacle and endurance races, plans to keep the Tough Mudder name. Spartan also plans to hold at least a half a dozen, and perhaps as many as 10, of the 25 events that Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Tough Mudder had scheduled in the U.S. this year. Spartan also recently bought Tough Mudder’s business in the United Kingdom and is in the process of buying its operations in Canada, a company representative said.

Billionaire Tilman Fertitta’s restaurant operation, Landry’s Inc., is offering $50 million to buy the Palm steakhouse restaurants and their branding out of a bankruptcy that stems from a bitter family feud, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company behind the Palm chain filed court papers on Thursday proposing to name a Landry’s affiliate as the stalking horse-bidder for the Palm enterprise, including the 21 branded steakhouses, trademarks, licensing rights and real estate. The company, Just One More Restaurant Corp., entered chapter 11 protection last year in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Myers, Fla., over a conflict between shareholders descended from the founders of the iconic original Palm. The Landry’s offer requires bankruptcy-court approval and is subject to higher and better bids. If another bidder wins the assets at auction, Landry’s would collect a $1.25 million breakup fee under a set of proposed bidding rules.

Forever 21 Inc.’s new owners plan to keep most of the fast-fashion chain’s U.S. stores open under a new chief executive in the coming weeks when the company emerges from bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. Owners Authentic Brands Group, Simon Property Group Inc. and Brookfield Property Partners are talking with other landlords about keeping as many of the 448 U.S. stores in business as possible, Authentic CEO Jamie Salter said in an interview. Forever 21 is interviewing three CEO candidates and will name a new one soon, Salter said. Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy in September after struggling with large, expensive locations and losses in some international markets, while dealing with the effects of the same online competition that has forced U.S. retailers to close thousands of stores in recent years. The new owners agreed to pay $81 million and assume certain liabilities as part of the purchase. The company is planning to launch or expand wholesale lines in jewelry, footwear and handbags, Salter said. It’s also planning to expand the Riley Rose beauty brand. Salter envisions “multiple” collaborations with other brands, both his own and outside ABG.

Dean Foods Co. agreed to sell a large chunk of its business to Dairy Farmers of America Inc. after the top U.S. milk processor went broke amid declining consumption and competition from Walmart Inc., Bloomberg News reported. After filing for chapter 11 protection in November, the maker of Dairy Pure products has agreed to divest 44 of its fluid and frozen facilities as well as assets necessary to operate them, it said on Monday. Separately, DFA said that it would pay a base price of $425 million for the assets, as well as taking on various liabilities, without elaborating. Dallas-based Dean’s losses piled up after its biggest customer, Walmart, built its own milk plant, with the rising price of raw milk further eroding margins. Demand for cow milk has been weak, too, with nut milks and even bottled water cutting into its popularity. Another large dairy processor, Borden Dairy Co., filed for bankruptcy shortly after Dean.

Luxury department store operator Saks Fifth Avenue, owned by Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Co., is expanding into bankrupt fashion chain Barneys’ Beverly Hills shop, Reuters reported. The move comes ahead of a shareholder vote later this month to approve Hudson’s Bay Executive Chairman Richard Baker’s C$2 billion ($1.51 billion) bid to take the retailer private. As a private company, Hudson’s Bay will be able to invest in its business without facing scrutiny from public shareholders. The company’s shares fell by almost one-half in the year before Baker announced his bid, but have since risen more than 40 percent. Barneys filed for bankruptcy last year due in part to rent hikes. Saks will use some form of the Barneys brand at the Beverly Hills store. The expansion of Saks into the Barneys’ location will give the upscale department store three stores on Wilshire Boulevard: its men store, a department store and the third spot in Barneys. It is not yet clear if Hudson’s Bay will keep all three locations. Hudson’s Bay currently operates 41 Saks Fifth Avenue stores and 114 Saks Off 5th discount locations.

A deadline set this week to submit offers for the former Fansteel Metals industrial site adjacent to the Port of Muskogee, Okla., was extended for nearly two months, the Muskogee Phoenix reported. The site, most of which is owned now by Fansteel subsidiary FMRI Inc., was contaminated by a process used to extract tantalum and columbium from uranium and thorium ores and tin slag. The facility was shuttered in 1989 and slated for decommissioning and limited site remediation. Documents produced by state and federal regulatory agencies show the radioactive residue produced by the extraction process contaminated much of the site, including some of the buildings, the process ponds, surrounding soils and groundwater. Nuclear Regulatory Commission documents summarizing FMRI’s decommissioning efforts indicate remediation of the site’s contaminated areas was expected to be completed by 2023. Those efforts have been delayed due to unexpected environmental issues and a second attempt bankruptcy filing in 2016. Observers expressed doubts there will be any takers for the 110-acre tract that is being assessed now as a potential Superfund site. The immediate plan is to secure enough of the debtor’s assets through bankruptcy proceedings to maintain the status quo for the near future until a long-term solution can be delivered.