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Relativity Media filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday against a swarm of disgruntled investors and other creditors, Variety Magazine reported today. The 11-year-old company that founder Ryan Kavanaugh had styled as a “next-generation global media company” will be sold at auction, a statement from the company said. The upcoming sale will center on the enterprise’s film and television units. Left outside of the insolvency action are Relativity Sports; Relativity EuropaCorp Distribution, a joint venture with the European film operator; and Relativity Education. All those units will continue on as independent concerns. The company’s fashion operation, M3/Relativity, was shut down this week and its employees laid off on Wednesday. Kavanaugh and his board proposed the immediate auction of the company, which stated liabilities of up to $1 billion.

Alpha Natural Resources Inc. is planning to file for bankruptcy protection in Virginia as soon as Monday as the biggest miner of U.S. coal used in steelmaking struggles amid the worst commodities slump in more than a decade, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company’s senior lenders including Citigroup Inc. and Davidson Kempner Capital Management plan to provide a loan to fund the company through bankruptcy. The company is in talks with the creditors over a plan that would include shutting mines. Bristol, Va.-based Alpha Natural would follow rivals Walter Energy Inc., Patriot Coal Corp. and James River Coal Co. in filing for bankruptcy during the past 15 months as met coal prices dropped 72 percent since 2011.

Embattled Relativity Media issued layoff notices to 75 of its 350 employees Wednesday, another sign that the debt-laden entertainment company is on the verge of a bankruptcy filing, Variety Magazine reported yesterday. Word came to workers after CEO Ryan Kavanaugh’s repeated failure to find new investors or loans to plug a yawning $320 million debt obligation. Relativity has postponed the release of several films, stopped payments to many vendors and left workers wondering about the future of the company. The continued retreat of Relativity operations represented another signal of an impending chapter 11 filing, which two sources close to the company now said is expected to come today. The company hopes a filing will help it to reorganize and emerge stronger, under its current leadership, though previously there has been pressure from some lenders to force Kavanaugh out.

Optim Energy LLC won approval of its plan to exit bankruptcy protection, a win for Bill Gates’s private investment firm in its fight with private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP for control of the Texas energy company, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Linehan Shannon said that he would sign off on Optim’s plan, which leaves the energy company in control of Gates’s private-equity firm, Cascade Investment. Blackstone had argued Optim’s plan was “a sham,” designed to benefit Gates and his investment firm. Optim had the votes it needs to get the plan approved, but first had to face off with Blackstone for two days last week at a confirmation hearing. Walnut Creek Mining, a Blackstone subsidiary that supplied fuel to Optim’s power plants, argued it was being shortchanged under the plan, recovering only about 1 percent of what it is owed while general unsecured creditors were expected to see a recovery of up to 95 percent.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. received a judge’s approval to keep control of its bankruptcy case into early next year, as well as the right to transfer to Trump Taj Mahal the financing agreements related to slot machines moved from the shuttered Trump Plaza, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross in orders signed on Tuesday approved Trump Entertainment’s request to extend until Dec. 3, 2015, the amount of time it has to file a reorganization plan without the threat of rival proposals, and until Feb. 3, 2016, to solicit votes on such a plan. Without the approvals, those periods would have expired on Aug. 5, and Oct. 6, respectively. While Trump Entertainment already has a plan in place that would put the company in the hands of top lender Carl Icahn, the company is still waiting for the plan to become effective. Part of the deal includes the rejection of collective bargaining agreements with the Taj Mahal’s union workers, which the union is appealing.

Manhattan’s WASA Studio, one of the country’s oldest architecture and engineering firms, whose predecessor designed Grand Central Terminal train station, filed for bankruptcy on Monday while fighting several legal battles with ex-clients, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Officials who put the firm into chapter 11 protection blocked its landlord from evicting the company’s operations from their Broadway office space. The company plans to relocate to another floor and look for buyers who could stabilize its operations, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The firm, known for decades as Wank Adams Slavin Associates, is fighting several lawsuits against ex-clients who are pushing for damages of more than $11 million, said Senior Managing Partner Harry Spring in court papers.

Bankruptcy court documents said that the sale of Standard Register Co.’s assets to Taylor Corp. is expected to close on or before Friday, the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News reported today. Standard Register, a Dayton-based printing and marketing company, yesterday filed a motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to change its corporate and business names, as required under the asset purchase agreement between Standard Register and Taylor Corp. Standard Register would become SRC Liquidation Co., court documents said. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Aug. 18. The court yesterday also approved Standard Register’s request to extend the period to file its chapter 11 bankruptcy plan by an additional 90 days. Standard Register’s 120-day period to propose and file a plan was set to expire July 10. The company’s period to solicit acceptance of that plan would expire Sept. 8.