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SFX Entertainment Considers Filing For Bankruptcy 26 Months after $260 Million IPO
Electronic dance music promoter SFX Entertainment is considering filing for bankruptcy, Forbes.com reported yesterday. The potential restructuring comes after founder and CEO Robert Sillerman strung investors along a 10-month takeover process that included multiple failed bids, in addition to a flurry of capital infusions to keep the money losing company afloat. For SFX, which listed its shares on the Nasdaq at a valuation exceeding $1 billion in Oct. 2013, a filing would cap the company’s stunning unraveling. Initially, investors flocked to SFX’s shares in hopes that Sillerman would be able to roll-up the fragmented EDM industry and create a live entertainment powerhouse similar an effort in the 1990s where he spent $1.2 billion buying regional music promoters before selling the venture (also called SFX) to Clear Channel for $3.3 billion in 2000.
James Lomma, Owner of Crane in 2008 New York City Collapse, Files for Bankruptcy
James F. Lomma, the owner of a New York City crane that collapsed in 2008 and killed two people, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy along with his companies in the wake of a $96 million jury award to the victims’ families last year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In May 2008, a crane owned by Mr. Lomma’s New York Crane & Equipment Corp. collapsed on East 91st Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The incident killed two men: crane operator Donald Leo and another worker, Ramadan Kurtaj. The following year, the families of Leo and Mr. Kurtaj each brought civil wrongful-death cases against Lomma. Criminal charges were also brought, but Lomma was acquitted. Lomma said in court papers that he decided to file for bankruptcy to try to preserve his businesses while he appeals the verdict. Adding that the decision to file for bankruptcy “is certainly not an easy one,” Lomma said the verdict “left the debtors no viable alternative.” The filing will halt attempts by creditors, including the families, to collect money while the companies and Lomma are in bankruptcy. Court papers say Lomma will ask for court permission to continue his appeal during the case.
District Judge Packs Off New GM to the First Ignition Switch Trial in Oklahoma
S.F. Yellow Cab May File for Bankruptcy
Yellow Cab Co-op, San Francisco’s largest taxi fleet with more than 500 cabs, said that it is considering filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today. The move comes six months after a San Francisco Superior Court jury found Yellow Cab liable for an $8 million award to a passenger who suffered brain injury and partial paralysis in a Yellow Cab vehicle. Organized as an owner co-operative, Yellow Cab told its 300 members in November that the move might be necessary.
Colt's Bankruptcy Exit Roiled by Sciens Default
Gun maker Colt Defense LLC's emergence from bankruptcy has been thrown into turmoil by a default on a $15 million funding commitment by private-equity owner Sciens Capital Management, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. After Sciens missed a December deadline to come up with the money bondholders scrambled to find more cash to cover most of the shortfall and ensure the deals designed to usher Colt out of bankruptcy stay in place. The Connecticut firearms manufacturer said in court papers that it is on track to emerge from chapter 11, but the role of its long-time owner remains to be seen. Sciens principal Daniel J. Standen, who is also chairman of the governing board of the Colt parent company, said in a court filing yesterday that the delay in funding was due to the need to document the new Colt investment as part of Sciens's effort to enlist its investors in the deal. The firm raises money separately for each new investment, Standen said, and in order not to hold Colt in bankruptcy, it negotiated a delayed timeline for participating in the capital raise.

Total Bankruptcy Filings Down 10 Percent in Calendar Year 2015, Commercial Chapter 11 Filings Register First Year-over-Year Increase Since 2009

Grail Semiconductor Files for Bankruptcy Protection
An invention company that accused a Mitsubishi affiliate of stealing one of its semiconductor designs more than a decade ago has filed for bankruptcy, saying its debts could top the amount the company agreed to pay in a recent settlement, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The inventor, Grail Semiconductor Inc., said in bankruptcy-court documents that it has settled its 2007 lawsuit against Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA, Inc., over the semiconductor design but declined to state how much money it expects to receive. The two sides settled their long-running dispute in October on the eve of a trial to determine a damage amount, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento, Calif. In 2012, a jury awarded Grail Semiconductor nearly $124 million in damages, though a judge later called for a new trial to revisit that amount.
RCS Capital to File for Chapter 11
Embattled brokerage firm RCS Capital Corp. plans to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under a prearranged filing intended to allow RCS to focus on its retail advice unit Cetera Financial Group, the Wall Street Journal reported today. RCS said that its lenders have agreed in principle to invest $150 million in new working capital into Cetera. The company said that it expects debt reduction and the elimination of preferred stock will total more than $500 million. Just over a month ago, RCS said that it would wind down its wholesale distribution business as part of a $3 million settlement with Massachusetts securities regulators over its use of fake proxy votes. The company has been working to raise capital and sell assets in the wake of a collapsed deal for Apollo Global Management LLC to buy a controlling stake in a group of trusts and other funds with $19 billion in real-estate holdings from RCS founder Nicholas Schorsch.
