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Less than three months after David's Bridal filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the potential buyer of the beleaguered retailer has been revealed, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported. Court documents show New York investment and business development company CION Investment Corp. has submitted a going-concern bid to acquire a portion of the Conshohocken-based wedding dress retailer's assets. "While we still have much work to do in order to proceed with seeking approval, and as nothing is certain, this could potentially be a great outcome for David’s Bridal. This bid, if approved, would provide new money to support a go-forward David’s Bridal with up to 195 stores," David's Bridal said in a statement to the Business Journal. The retailer has more than 300 stores in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, with additional franchise locations in Mexico. It is currently owned by a group of lenders including Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Group.

Discount home-goods retailer Christmas Tree Shops is headed for liquidation after defaulting on a loan that funds its bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The 82-store chain filed for bankruptcy in May with plans to close a small number of underperforming stores and to exit chapter 11 by August. The plan was to restructure the company’s finances while keeping its ownership intact. The retailer took out a $45 million bankruptcy loan, including roughly $20 million in fresh capital, from its lenders. But the creditors terminated the loan after the company defaulted on the terms due to worsening revenues and liquidity, according to a notice filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., on Thursday. The company and its stakeholders have reached an agreement this week to liquidate the remaining roughly 70 stores unless a buyer emerges within the next week or so, according to the filing. “Unfortunately, circumstances have resulted in the plan really not being able to go forward because quite simply, the debtor doesn’t have the time nor the money to go forward with the plan,” said Harold Murphy, a lawyer for the retailer, during a Thursday court hearing. The retailer will no longer present a plan to exit bankruptcy because of the change of course, said Murphy.

A judge is weighing a dispute between AMC Entertainment, the troubled movie-theater chain that capitalized on the enthusiasm of meme-stock investors to help it survive the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of those same investors who have turned against it, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. A two-day hearing in the Delaware Chancery Court concluded Friday, with nearly 3,000 individuals who own shares in AMC having written letters, filed objections or appeared in court to object to the terms of a settlement over a set of equity transactions planned by the company. John Barton, an Air Force veteran who owns AMC shares, said during the first day of the hearing on Thursday, “I speak to you today hoping to represent the 3.8 million individual investors that are about to find themselves at a loss, saving AMC and its theaters.” “My fear is that the individual investors are going to be caught holding the bag, not making the money that the shorts and AMC will during this conversion event,” Barton said. Vice Chancellor Morgan Zurn, the judge overseeing the case, is expected to issue a ruling within weeks. The dispute centers on the company’s planned transactions to convert its AMC preferred equity units, known as Apes, into common shares, as well as to conduct a 10-for-1 reverse-stock-split. AMC has said that these transactions would enable it to raise money by selling additional shares, and that it might need the liquidity buffer to avoid bankruptcy as it continues to struggle with its heavy debt load amid uncertain cinema industry conditions.

Overstock.com intends to sunset its company name and rebrand as Bed Bath & Beyond after purchasing that company's intellectual property assets in bankruptcy, Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson said on Thursday, Reuters reported. Overstock, which chose not to bid on any of Bed Bath & Beyond's retail locations or inventory, will remain an online-only home goods retailer, combining Overstock's strengths with a better-known and stronger brand name, Johnson said in an interview. "An opportunity arose in bankruptcy to get the pieces that we loved and not have them burdened by the things we didn't like," Johnson said. "We've long liked the Bed Bath and Beyond name, but we didn't like the stores, the inventory, so don't expect stores from us." Overstock's "generic" name has held the company back, and it does not really reflect the company's current focus on selling home goods and furniture online, Johnson said.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. selected baby goods company Dream on Me Industries Inc. as the initial winner of an auction for the bankrupt retailer’s BuyBuy Baby brand, with the hope that a higher bid might emerge to keep the brand’s stores alive, according to court papers, Bloomberg News reported. Although New Jersey-based Dream on Me won the initial auction held on Thursday for the company’s intellectual property, its bid could be superseded if a higher or better bid emerges for the company as a going concern, court papers show. Everyday Health Media LLC was selected as the sole backup bidder for the BuyBuy Baby assets. The terms of Dream on Me’s bid have not yet been disclosed. The company extended the deadline for BuyBuy Baby’s going concern auction to July 7. The auction was originally scheduled for Thursday. Bed Bath sold its flagship brand this week to Overstock.com Inc. for $21.5 million, after the company was unable to secure another buyer interested in keeping stores open.

Serta Simmons Bedding has completed its financial restructuring and emerged from chapter 11 five months after filing for protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in January, Furniture Today reported. The bankruptcy court ruled earlier this month that the company’s plan could move forward. At the time of its filing, the Serta Simmons included a plan to emerge quickly with financing in place. As part of the go-forward plan, the company has put together a board of directors that includes a familiar bedding executive: former chairman and CEO of Simmons Bedding, Charlie Eitel. Mark Genender, managing partner of Bristol Growth Capital and also an alum of the Simmons board, has been appointed chairman. Other members of the board include current CEO Shelley Huff and Brandi Thomas, group vice president and chief audit executive for General Electric, both of whom were already board members. Under the plan, the company says it has “ample liquidity and a more flexible capital structure” to execute its turnaround plan. Through the bankruptcy process, Serta Simmons reduced its debt from $1.9 billion to $315 million, lowering its annual interest expense by more than $100 million. In addition, the company has secured a $100 million revolving credit facility.