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RadioShack Corp. is looking for bankruptcy court approval to pay up to $3 million in bonuses to key employees as it races to liquidate half its stores and turn over the rest to the highest bidder at a coming auction, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Eight executives and up to 30 other employees are in line for the payouts, which the company says are essential to maximizing the sale price of the beleaguered company and to keeping people from leaving during the bankruptcy process. RadioShack filed for chapter 11 protection last week with plans to close up to 2,100 of its roughly 4,000 stores and keep the rest operating through a sale. Lender and shareholder Standard General LP offered to open bidding at a bankruptcy auction with a deal to acquire between 1,500 and 2,400 stores and partner with wireless operator Sprint Corp. to operate many of them.

The Revel Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J., asked a bankruptcy judge to end its agreement to sell the gambling complex to Florida developer Glenn Straub for $95.4 million, Reuters reported yesterday. The hotel's legal team also asked Judge Gloria Burns for permission to keep Straub's $10 million deposit. The sale to Straub became embroiled in disputes with owners of the casino's $160 million power plant, and with a group of restaurants and nightclubs that once operated in the casino, which closed in September. The restaurants feared that they could lose millions in construction costs if the sale to Straub proceeded and they were stripped of their leases. But under a stay of the sale issued by U.S. District Judge Jerome Simandle, it remained unclear if those businesses were included in the $95.4 million purchase price from Straub. The Revel asked Judge Burns to hold a hearing today to consider its requests.

Threatened with a creditor revolt, Energy Future Holdings Corp. said that it would be distributing a term sheet this week outlining a proposal for reshaping its $42 billion debt load and ending a contentious stay in bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The announcement that the Dallas energy company is preparing an outline of a proposed reorganization plan came at a court hearing where multiple creditors expressed frustration at the lack of progress in the big chapter 11 case, which began last year. When it filed for chapter 11 protection, Energy Future brought with it a partially agreed-to restructuring strategy, which it later abandoned. In the months that followed, Energy Future hasn't come up with a new way out of chapter 11. The company won bankruptcy court approval yesterday to hang on to exclusive rights to file a chapter 11 emergence plan until June 23, at a hearing where creditors clamored for action. Energy Future originally asked to cling to sole control of the case until Oct. 29 but dialed back the request after creditors protested.

A bankruptcy judge in West Virginia is throwing open the courthouse doors to those affected by a chemical-spill disaster last year, inviting them to weigh in on what should happen to the little that remains of Freedom Industries Inc., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson scheduled a March 3 status conference in the chapter 11 case of Freedom, which owned the tank that leaked a coal-treatment chemical into the Elk River, contaminating the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians. Cash is running out, professional bills are mounting and company ex-president Gary Southern, one of the former Freedom leaders facing criminal charges, has tied up a $3 million insurance settlement that could help those injured by the spill, the judge said in an order issued Friday. "It is time to have the principal parties in interest...provide input with respect to how this case should be administered," Judge Pearson wrote.

RadioShack Corp.’s proposed bankruptcy financing cleared court yesterday as the retailer continues the process of racing to sell out and shut down some 1,100 stores by the end of the month, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Up to 2,100 RadioShack stores won’t survive the chapter 11 bankruptcy, the company has said. Going-out-of-business sales began Friday at more than 1,700 stores across the country as RadioShack began the process of trimming its collection of more than 4,000 outlets. Liquidators kicked off the process over the weekend by marking down merchandise, seeking to clear out stores as soon as possible so that new tenants can take over. A&G Realty Partners LLC yesterday started shopping around those leases to restaurants, shoe stores, jewelry shops and other retailers that would likely be in the market for a small-format location.

A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved a preliminary deal between Wet Seal Inc. and B. Riley & Co. despite spirited opposition from rival bidder Versa Capital Management LLC, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi signed off a modified deal proposing that B. Riley take 80 percent of the equity in a reorganized Wet Seal in exchange for $25 million, $5 million more than had initially been offered. The remaining 20 percent of the company would be set aside for unsecured creditors.

Altegrity Inc., owner of the company that carried out background checks on former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis, filed for chapter 11 protection yesterday as it implements a restructuring deal with its lenders, Reuters reported today. Altegrity, which owns USIS Investigations Services, listed assets and liabilities of more than $1 billion, according to court documents. The company said that some of its lenders, including funds managed by Third Avenue Management, Litespeed Management LLC and Mudrick Capital Management LP, have committed to provide $90 million in debtor-in-possession financing.

A federal judge in New Jersey yesterday called a temporary halt to the pending sale of bankrupt Revel Casino in Atlantic City and scheduled a hearing today on a motion to block some of the terms of the $94.5 million deal, Reuters reported today. U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Simandle ordered an emergency hearing in the proposed sale of the property to Florida developer Glen Straub, who could lose his $10 million deposit if the deal does not close by Monday's deadline. Straub is trying to buy the casino without any obligations to leases held by bars, clubs and restaurants that operated in the casino's hotel. Some of those tenants have gone to court to block the deal unless it protects their property rights. An appeals court on Friday ruled in favor of one of the tenants, prompting others to file motions on Saturday to get similar treatment. Judge Simandle ruled in their favor in setting the hearing for Monday. Revel, which cost $2.4 billion to build and opened two years ago, closed on Sept. 2 after filing for bankruptcy three months earlier.

Women's retailer Cache Inc. hasn't given up hope on finding a buyer to keep its 218 stores alive, but in the meantime it is looking to secure bankruptcy court approval to begin store-closeout sales by early March, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. During the company's first appearance in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., yesterday, attorneys for Cache said that going-out-of-business sales would start March 4 under a current timeline if no bidders come forward to top an offer from a pair of liquidators. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath, who still has to approve the schedule, expressed some skepticism on Thursday at the direction the case is going. "Why am I authorizing a sale that's going to be complete in 30 days, when it appears nobody but the lender's going to get any money?" Judge Walrath asked. "We don't know that there won't be value," Cache attorney Laura Davis Jones of Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP said, noting that while the company has been shopping itself around for some time, a buyer could still come forward.

The price for Dendreon Corp., the bankrupt developer of a drug to treat advanced prostate cancer, rose more than one-third to $400 million before an auction has even been held, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. To retain its place as the stalking-horse bid, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. boosted its initial offer from $296 million. A bankruptcy judge in Delaware approved Valeant as the stalking horse yesterday. Competing bids for the Feb. 12. auction are due Feb. 10. A sale-approval hearing is set for Feb. 20.