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Dune Energy Inc., a Houston-based energy company, has received a bankruptcy judge’s approval to kick off a marketing and sale process, one that aims to keep the business operating while in chapter 11, the Wall Street Journal reported today. During the company’s first appearance in bankruptcy court on Tuesday, Bankruptcy Judge H. Christopher Mott signed off on a series of first-day motions that will ease Dune’s transition into bankruptcy protection, allowing it to pay employees, to access its bank account and to otherwise continue normal operations. Judge Mott also signed an interim order allowing the company to drawn down up to $3 million of a larger $10 million loan from a group of lenders led by Bank of Montreal. A final hearing on the loan is scheduled for April 2. As a condition of the bankruptcy financing, Dune’s senior lenders are requiring that the company put itself up for auction.

Doral Financial Corp. filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday, saying that it intends to wind down its businesses, liquidate its assets, and seek approval for a liquidation plan, Reuters reported yesterday. DFC, which has retail banking operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S., listed assets of $50 million to $100 million and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million. DFC said that its subsidiaries - Doral Insurance Agency LLC, Doral Recovery Inc. and Doral Properties Inc., have not filed for bankruptcy protection. Doral was put under operating restrictions last month after being told by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in January that a plan it submitted to restore its capital was not acceptable. Doral has also been under pressure in a lengthy fight with Puerto Rico about a $229 million tax refund. It lost an appeals court ruling to grant the lender the refund.

Technology blog Gigaom announced that, unable to pay creditors, it is discontinuing its operations, but it is not likely filing for bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a post titled, “a brief note about our company,” Gigaom’s management said that it is currently unable to pay creditors that have rights to all of the company’s assets. Gigaom said that it doesn’t know what lenders plan to do with the assets, but it reported that “the company does not currently intend to file bankruptcy.” The announcement seems to describe a situation in which Gigaom’s lenders are foreclosing on the company’s assets because they weren’t being paid. Gigaom was founded in 2006 by Om Malik, who’s since left the site, and claims to have a monthly audience of 6.5 million. The website’s coverage focused on topics like new technologies including cloud services, the media and Apple Inc.

Bankruptcy lawyers in charge of information technology staffing firm Cloudeeva Inc. are proposing to sell the New Jersey company at an April auction, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Cloudeeva officials said that staffing competitor First Tek Inc. has already offered $5.6 million for the struggling company, whose roughly 350 full-time and contracted workers are hired as tech support by corporations and governments, according to a bankruptcy court filing. In court papers, Richard Honig, who was put in charge of Cloudeeva's operations as chapter 11 trustee in February, urged Judge Kathryn Ferguson to set an April 7 auction soon. Through his lawyers, Honig said that the company's business has "continued to erode" as employees worry about their jobs and as customers wonder "whether the [company will] remain a reliable source of staffing."

LightSquared Inc. got an offer from hedge fund Solus Alternative Asset Management LP to buy $500 million of a loan held by Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charles Ergen, who is opposing the bankrupt broadband wireless venture’s reorganization plan, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Solus, which earlier put forth a rival bankruptcy plan for LightSquared, said that it was encouraged instead to suggest improvements to the company’s own proposal, its fifth effort to exit court protection. The hedge fund said that it would pay Ergen in cash and invest another $89.5 million in LightSquared, taking 34.3 percent of its stock.

Energy Future Holdings Corp. has won court permission to pay down as much as $750 million of a $2.15 billion bond issue, a move that will save $66 million in interest this year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Energy Future’s request for an early partial payoff was approved after a brief discussion at a bankruptcy court hearing yesterday. The money’s going to one of more than half a dozen camps of creditors battling over the value in the big energy company, which has everything from mines to get coal out of the ground to a big stake in a transmissions business that’s operated under the watchful eye of Texas regulators, Oncor. Dallas-based Energy Future had an exit strategy in mind last year when it filed for chapter 11 protection. That strategy fell by the wayside after the Oncor stake became a takeover target. The Oncor stake is going up for auction, and the rest of Energy Future is up for grabs in bankruptcy. The company is trying to round up a consensus for a restructuring plan that will allow it to divide its businesses while avoiding a big tax bill.

General Motors Co. yesterday became the latest company to return billions of dollars to shareholders amid tussles with investors over how to better allocate corporate cash, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Facing a potentially contentious fight over a board seat and a larger buyback, the carmaker tried to walk the line between placating big investors and spending more on its future. GM disclosed a $5 billion stock repurchase, a sum that comes on top of a previously announced dividend increase, and an additional $9 billion it will spend this year to improve brands including Cadillac, boost fuel efficiency and develop electric and driverless cars, among other things. GM made its buyback decision after top officials determined its $25 billion in cash was more than enough to fulfill spending plans and handle uncertainties like the federal investigation into a botched ignition-switch recall. The nation’s largest automaker had come under fire from Harry Wilson, a former architect of GM’s federal bailout, who wanted an $8 billion buyback and had the backing of four hedge funds in his bid to get a seat on the company’s board.

Women’s dress and formalwear chain Cache officially kicked off going-out-of-business sales on Friday, and customers should act fast if they’re holding on to a gift card for the retailer, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Cache said in a court filing on Friday that it plans to honor gift cards for 30 days, meaning they’ll be valid until April 5. The same goes for merchandise returns (only on clothing bought before the liquidation sales) and other promotions.

U.K. insurance company Towergate Finance PLC is seeking the aid of a U.S. bankruptcy court as it works through its financial troubles in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Trouble with regulators and a streak of losses triggered concerns about the financial stability of the Towergate Group of insurance brokers last year. Negotiations with senior creditors have produced an agreed-upon restructuring plan, but Towergate fears that a dissenting investor could sue in the U.S., complicating its effort to put in place so-called schemes of arrangement in the U.K. To ward off the threat of a lawsuit in the U.S. from a dissenting investor, Towergate filed for chapter 15 protection on Friday in New York.

A lawyer for LightSquared yesterday said that the company will set aside $400 million to give certain bankruptcy lenders, including Dish Network Corp. Chairman Charles Ergen, the option to take a portion of their repayments in cash instead of notes, Reuters reported yesterday. The bankrupt wireless venture, opening a week-long trial seeking a judge's approval of its debt restructuring plan, is looking to end one of the most litigious bankruptcies of recent years. LightSquared, owned by Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, was planning to build a massive wireless network when it was forced to file for bankruptcy in May 2012, after the Federal Communications Commission revoked its spectrum license over potential GPS interference. Since then, no fewer than seven restructuring proposals have failed amid creditor fights over the treatment of debt and the underlying value of LightSquared's spectrum. To end its bankruptcy, LightSquared must convince Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman that its latest plan treats creditors fairly. The plan would let Harbinger retain some equity but cede operational control, transfer a chunk of equity to lenders Fortress Investment Group and Centerbridge Partners, and repay other lenders, including Ergen, via notes.