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Aereo Inc., the online-TV service backed by Barry Diller that was found to violate copyright law, garnered less than $2 million for its assets at a bankruptcy auction, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The New York-based company had said that it expected bidding of $4 million to $31.2 million. TiVo Inc., which makes digital video recorders, was the winning bidder for the online service’s trademark, customer list and certain other assets, Aereo said. RPX Corp., a patent risk-management company, bought Aereo’s patent portfolio, and information-technology consultant Alliance Technologies acquired some equipment.

The bankrupt main operating unit of Caesars Entertainment Corp. has asked that an outsider be summoned to probe alleged insider-led looting of the gambling operation, a request slated for court review next week, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The call for a probe of its own affairs was an unusual, perhaps unprecedented move by the Las Vegas casino operating unit, which was being pursued through the courts of two states by angry investors ever since it filed for chapter 11 protection Jan. 15. It provoked an even more unusual, perhaps unprecedented response by the trustee for bondholders owed $479 million. Forget about an examiner for now, and just let creditors with money riding on Caesars’ bankruptcy conduct their own investigations, said Wilmington Trust, trustee for investors in senior unsecured notes. Caesars “requested an examination of the challenged transactions, not to find out what they did or what they should do now to remedy their wrongs, but rather to forestall creditor investigations and access to documents,” lawyers for the bond trustee wrote.

Hedge fund Standard General LP will lead the bidding at a bankruptcy auction of 1,700 or more RadioShack stores, as the electronics retailer tries to save some of its struggling business, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon yesterday approved rules for a March 23 competition over the part of RadioShack’s business that has been marked for a turnaround effort, roughly half the 4,000-store chain. Standard General won the role of opening bidder after making concessions to creditors. A big lender and big shareholder of RadioShack, Standard General has said it would operate co-branded stores-within-a-store with Sprint. That will ensure the reorganized business will get the benefit of traffic from customers of cellphone services, without the drag on profits that hurt RadioShack’s business, Standard General says. 

The company that poured the high-security concrete superstructure for 1 World Trade Center says that it’s struggling to stay afloat after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey refused to pay $87 million for services rendered, the New York Daily News reported yesterday. A business entity tied to Collavino Construction Company, one of the main contractors on the Lower Manhattan tower, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, claiming that it can’t afford to pay its suppliers until it’s been paid. The Port Authority tapped Collavino, a Canadian company with offices in New Jersey, in 2007 to construct the 105-floor concrete superstructure for the iconic building, according to the bankruptcy filing. The specially reinforced concrete it poured was designed to protect the above-ground portion of the building from a street-level blast. 

Surgery-monitoring company ProNerve LLC filed for chapter 11 protection Tuesday with plans to sell itself to a competitor through a bankruptcy auction, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The filing, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., comes after at least three years of losses at the company, which was founded in 2008 in a Denver suburb. The proposed buyer, SpecialtyCare IOM Services LLC, has already taken on $43.2 million in debt that ProNerve owes to a lender-group led by General Electric Capital Corp. ProNerve, backed by private-equity firm Waud Capital Partners, provides monitoring services to ensure doctors don't damage a patient's nervous system during surgeries and other delicate medical procedures. 

Chassix Inc., a supplier of steering knuckles, control arms and brake components to large automakers, is working to finalize a restructuring plan with creditors and seek bankruptcy protection as soon as next week, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Southfield, Mich., company, owned by private-equity firm Platinum Equity LLC, is negotiating a prearranged bankruptcy plan that would hand ownership stakes to creditors in exchange for forgiving debt and rework contracts with big automakers including General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. The company aims to have the plan in place before a bankruptcy filing with a goal of streamlining its trip through court. Chassix, which employs more than 4,000 people worldwide, is in discussions with banks and bondholders for more than $200 million in financing that would help it keep operating during bankruptcy proceedings. The company hopes to finalize a restructuring deal by March 4, when a grace period on a skipped $17 million debt payment expires. Overall, Chassix is looking to restructure about $525 million in bond debt.

Bankrupt RadioShack Corp. spent an emergency loan on fees and other payments to favored lenders in what creditors said was a departure from a judge’s orders, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The judge overseeing the bankruptcy approved RadioShack’s borrowing of $10 million on Feb. 10 to allow it to make essential payments. Instead, the company’s budget shows that it used $3.2 million for interest and fees to select lenders and almost $8.7 million for fees and retainers to advisers, a committee of creditors said in a court filing yesterday. The electronics retailer also intends to make unauthorized payments this month of around $38.4 million to lenders who agreed to advance money solely to pay their earlier loans, the committee said. RadioShack has been met with harsh criticism of its borrowing plan and a deal to sell its best stores to its biggest shareholder, Standard General LP, which arranged a large pre-bankruptcy loan. The creditors’ committee has now asked the judge to rewrite his temporary approval to clarify what he was authorizing. 

The shuttered Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J., again has a buyer — and again it's Florida developer Glenn Straub, who was lured back by a discounted price of $82 million, Reuters reported yesterday. The deal follows two failed sale agreements for the casino hotel, which cost $2.4 billion to build and is struggling to emerge from the second bankruptcy since it opened in 2012. Straub's previous purchase agreement was dogged by disputes with restaurants and nightclubs that operated in the hotel, which was distinguished by its eye-catching design. The developer said yesterday that he would invest $100 million to expand the exterior of the building and making the lobby more accessible. Straub said his three-year plan to integrate "quality of life and sports will help change the image of Atlantic City from a predominantly gaming destination back to a world-renowned resort town." Straub's Polo North Country Club Inc. has deposited the full purchase price with Revel.

American Airlines Group Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. have no plans to rescue Japan's bankrupt Skymark Airlines Inc., the two companies said separately yesterday following a media report on their alleged interest in the budget carrier, Reuters reported yesterday. Nikkei Asian Review reported earlier that American intended to send executives to Japan to discuss investment in Skymark, and that a tie-up interested Delta, which lacks a Japanese partner in its SkyTeam alliance. The report came as Japan's biggest carrier, ANA Holdings Inc, and a subsidiary of Malaysia's AirAsia Bhd expressed interest in Skymark. Meanwhile, U.S. carriers are increasingly competing for passengers between East Asia and the United States.

The Canadian subsidiary of embattled for-profit education company Corinthian Colleges Inc. has filed for bankruptcy under Canada’s insolvency law after an Ontario education regulator took action against the company’s 14 Canadian campuses, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Everest Colleges Canada Inc. filed for an assignment under the Bankruptcy Insolvency Act on Friday, which is Canada’s bankruptcy law. Duff Phelps Canada Restructuring Inc. will administer the case as trustee, according to an announcement. Until recently, Corinthian’s Canadian operations had been isolated from the chaos that has embroiled the company in the U.S. since last summer. The 14 Everest campuses weren’t linked to the deal with the U.S. Department of Education that required Corinthian to sell or close all of its campuses in the U.S. Then on Feb. 19, the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities suspended Everest’s registration and gave notice that it intends to make that suspension permanent.