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Toys “R” Us Inc. is moving forward with the sale of its brand name and other intellectual property assets as it continues to wind down its U.S. business and sell other parts of the international retailer’s empire, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy Judge Keith Phillips signed off on the sale procedures to sell these assets. The intellectual property assets include both the Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us brand names, website domain names, customer service lists and registries, and even the rights to the retailer’s mascot, Geoffrey the Giraffe. Even the data collected from the U.S. customer files, including product history, loyalty programs and the “birthday club,” will be a part of the package, court papers show. A consumer privacy ombudsman will be appointed to oversee the sale of such data.

The expiration date for Necco wafers, the pre-Civil War chalky sweets that were facing extinction, just got an extension, the Wall Street Journal reported. Ohio-based Spangler Candy Co. made a winning bid of $18.83 million at a federal bankruptcy auction in Boston on Wednesday for the assets of the New England Confectionery Co., the 171-year-old maker of the Necco candy. The sale to family-owned Spangler—which makes Dum Dums lollipops and the orange marshmallow Circus Peanuts—is expected to close Friday. In March, New England Confectionery—creators of the iconic wafer since 1847 and the oldest continually operated candy maker in the country—notified its hometown of Revere, Mass., that it would close operations in May and lay off hundreds of workers if the company didn’t find a new owner. The company, which is owned by New York investment firm Ares Capital, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April.

The Miami Medical Center filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, and the 67-bed hospital is slated to be sold in auction in late June, Becker's Hospital Review reported. Leawood, Kan.-based Nueterra, along with its partners, acquired Miami Medical Center in 2014 and invested $70 million in the facility. Children's Health Ventures, the for-profit arm of Miami-based Nicklaus Children's Hospital, invested in Miami Medical Center with hopes of bringing a unique care model to South Florida. However, the Miami Medical Center struggled to stay afloat. The hospital suspended patient services Oct. 30, 2017, and subsequently laid off its 180 employees. It filed for bankruptcy protection March 9, 2018. On March 30, Miami Medical Center filed a motion to approve bidding procedures for the sale of the hospital and to approve certain protections to the stalking-horse purchaser Nicklaus Children's Hospital. The general unsecured creditors' committee and a group of physicians objected to the proposed bidding procedures and the ability of Nicklaus Children's Hospital to credit the amount of its liens on Miami Medical Center. Read more. 

For more on hospital and health care insolvencies, be sure to pick up a copy of the ABI Health Care Insolvency Manual, Third Edition from the ABI Bookstore. 

Surveillance camera maker Arecont Vision LLC has asked a bankruptcy judge for approval to send its business to the auction block, hoping to complete a sale to a New York-based private-equity firm by mid-July, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Court papers filed on Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., show that the company is preparing an auction for bidders to compete with a $10 million offer from an affiliate of Turnspire Capital Partners LLC. The sale process will be supervised by Judge Christopher Sontchi, and the proposed timeline and rules governing the auction must first win his signature. Arecont Vision has asked for a June 29 deadline for competing bids and a July 5 auction. A court hearing to approve the results of that auction would follow July 6.

The co-founder of New York-based marketing firm Didit is interested in buying gossip website Gawker Media LLC out of bankruptcy after a U.S. judge yesterday approved a settlement with the investor Peter Thiel, whose funding of a lawsuit against Gawker forced it to close in 2016, Reuters reported. A bid by Kevin Lee, co-founder and executive chairman of Didit, has set a floor price for other potential buyers in a bankruptcy auction. As part of the settlement approved yesterday by Bankruptcy Judge Stuart Bernstein, Thiel Capital LLC agreed to drop its bid to buy Gawker and its archives and also agreed to release claims against any eventual buyer. The settlement was originally proposed when Thiel abandoned his effort to buy the defunct site last month. “We remain interested in Gawker.com and if we prevail, (we) plan to relaunch Gawker as Gawker For Good, using ad revenues to donate to nonprofits,” said Lee, a search engine marketing expert.

Appvion Inc., which operates a paper and pulp mill in Blair County, Pa., has been approved by a U.S. bankruptcy court to sell all its assets by the end of May, WJACTV.com reported. The company said that the group buying the assets, Franklin Advisers Inc., submitted a stalking-horse bid in February for $340 million plus the assumption of substantial liabilities, including Appvion's contractual obligations. The transaction will reduce Appvion's debt to from $585 million to less than $175 million. Appvion filed for chapter 11 protection in October and said it would be cutting 200 jobs at its Appleton, Wis., location and bring some of the work to Roaring Spring, Pa. The sale does not include the assumption of the employee stock ownership plan or its pension plan, and the ESOP will be terminated following the completion of the sale.

Enduro Resource Partners LP, a private equity-backed oil and gas producer, has filed for bankruptcy protection as part of an agreement with lenders to sell its properties and liquidate the business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Enduro and its affiliates filed for chapter 11 protection Tuesday in Wilmington, Del., after reaching agreement with senior and junior lenders owed about $350 million. The company was founded in 2010 by energy investment firm Riverstone Holdings LLC. A publicly traded trust that holds an interest in certain Enduro properties isn’t part of the bankruptcy, the company said. Enduro, based in Fort Worth, Texas, said that it began a sale process for its assets in January and comes to court with deals to sell portions of those assets for $77.5 million, subject to higher or better bids. Any sale has to be approved by a bankruptcy judge. Enduro is seeking to establish a deadline of about seven weeks for receiving new bids, court papers say.