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Bankrupt telecommunications provider Windstream Holdings Inc. reached a settlement with Uniti Group Inc., a company whose broadband network is crucial for Windstream’s operations, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Since last summer, the two companies have been locked in battle over the rent that Windstream pays for use of Uniti’s fiber-optic network — a fight that threatened to push Uniti into bankruptcy as well. The two companies declared the truce just ahead of a scheduled yesterday trial in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York over whether Windstream could stop or reduce its $54 million monthly rent payments to Uniti. Under the settlement, which requires court approval, Uniti would pay Windstream $400 million in cash, plus interest, over 20 quarters, and it would purchase certain fiber assets from Windstream. Uniti also agreed to invest up to $1.75 billion to upgrade fiber networks used by Windstream through 2029. Windstream would continue paying rent at current levels for a year, with rents then increasing depending on annual capital spending by Uniti. Some Windstream lenders also agreed to purchase just over $244 million worth of Uniti shares as part of the deal.

A bankruptcy judge approved Lockheed Martin Corp.’s purchase of space-technology company Vector Launch Inc.’s GalacticSky satellite business, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Judge John T. Dorsey said that he would sign off on Lockheed’s $4.25 million purchase of the satellite software business at a hearing on Friday. Vector Launch was also developing two rockets to launch satellites from anywhere when its venture-capital backer pulled the plug on the financing. Those developmental-stage rockets, each designed to handle more than 100 flights a year, weren’t included in the sale to Lockheed. Vector Launch filed for bankruptcy late last year, blaming its demise on venture-capital backer Sequoia Capital’s decision not to provide additional funding for its development efforts. The company had raised about $100 million in venture capital, with its Series A funding round led by Sequoia. Founded in 2016, Vector had been developing two satellite launchers designed for small-size spacecraft, neither of which have reached orbit. At the time of the bankruptcy, the company employed more than 150 rocket scientists, engineers and other staff on payroll. Aside from the rockets and facilities in California and Arizona, Vector’s assets include intellectual property, patents, rocket engines and a transporter-erector launcher.

The technology company that developed Beam, a teleconference robot that broadcasts a user’s face on a fixed monitor, has filed for bankruptcy protection, saying that the product was slow to catch on and that the business incurred tens of millions of dollars in losses, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Suitable Technologies Inc. is winding down its business and has hired investment banker Stout Risius Ross Advisors LLC “to canvass the market for interested buyers” in its intellectual property, equipment and other remaining assets, the company said yesterday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Founded in 2011 by Silicon Valley investor and software developer Scott Hassan, the startup received extensive press coverage for its Beam teleconference robots. But the market for the devices “was slow to materialize,” court papers said. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Suitable Technologies said it sold or leased about 7,000 units to customers but suffered operating losses of more than $50 million between 2013 and 2018. Hassan was an early developer of Alphabet Inc.’s Google and has been credited as a key contributor to the search engine. He has been Suitable Technologies’ “sole source of funding” and lent the business almost $92 million through an investment vehicle he controls, court papers say.

U.S. satellite broadband provider Hughes Network Systems may have to shut its Indian operations due to unpaid levies owed to the government, which could put thousands of banking services at risk, Reuters reported. India’s Supreme Court late last year ordered a number of telecom companies, including Hughes and larger firms like Vodafone, to pay billions of dollars owed to the government. Hughes’ India unit provides services to defence, education and banking sectors in the country and told India’s telecoms minister in a letter dated Feb. 20 that it faces bankruptcy as it can’t pay the 6 billion rupees ($84 million) it owes. The closure of the company could disrupt connectivity at more than 70,000 banking locations and many critical satellite networks in the Indian navy, army and railways, Hughes’ India President Partho Banerjee said in the letter.

Essential Products, a consumer electronics start-up founded by the former Google executive Andy Rubin, said on Wednesday that it was ceasing operations, the New York Times reported. Once considered one of Silicon Valley’s most promising hardware technology start-ups, Essential had raised $330 million in outside funding because of the track record of Rubin, who is widely credited with creating Google’s Android smartphone software. But Essential, which was once valued at $1 billion, has struggled. It released a premium smartphone in 2017 that did not sell well, and it later scrapped plans to develop a smart speaker. Essential was also dogged by news about Rubin and the circumstances of his departure from Google. The New York Times reported in 2018 that Google had paid Rubin a $90 million exit package after claims of sexual misconduct with an employee were deemed credible. Rubin has denied the claims. In a blog post on the company’s website on Wednesday, Essential said that it had developed a new handset, but that there was “no clear path to deliver it to customers.”

According to research by Villanova law professor Jason Iuliano, a million student loan debtors have filed for bankruptcy in the past five years. However, 99.9 percent of them did not include their student loan debt in their bankruptcy filing. This research was the seed of what would become Reset Button, a new startup founded by Iuliano and Rob Hunter looking to help student loan debtors who have gone through bankruptcy find a new way to include those debts in their filing, TechCrunch.com reported. Reset Button is targeted directly at folks who have already filed for bankruptcy but were told they couldn’t include their student loan debt in those filings, and so they didn’t. Reset Button has built a network of litigation lawyers who have experience in seeking student loan discharges. When a new user fires up Reset Button, the startup sends them through an evaluation process that collects financial information, etc. to assess whether or not one of those lawyers could litigate the discharge of that user’s student loan debt. Reset Button, as the connective tissue between debtor and lawyer, is able to automate a lot of that process for the lawyers, delivering a package of information on the case and connecting the user with the right lawyer for them.

Intelsat SA could receive as much as $4.85 billion for giving up airwaves to be used for fast 5G networks, according to details released Friday of the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal for the transition, Bloomberg News reported. Fellow satellite provider SES SA could receive about $4 billion, according to the plan, which was posted online by the FCC. The proposal, announced by Chairman Ajit Pai on Thursday, envisions as much as $14.9 billion in payments to satellite companies including compensation for their switching costs. The companies have proposed giving up part of the airwaves they use to beam TV and radio programs to stations, and to continue serving customers on airwaves they retain. The swath at issue is known as the C-band, and regulators are eager to free it to carry traffic for 5G networks. Intelsat’s 9.5 percent bonds due in 2023 rallied the most in the high-yield market after the news, gaining 9.5 cents on the dollar to 76.5 cents. Its 8.125 percent notes due in 2023 rose 4.5 cents on the dollar to 53 cents. Intelsat shares erased losses, with the stock trading up 1.5 percent at one point after plunging as much as 16 percent earlier. Intelsat has enough cash on hand to fund the company through 2021. There is “no reason for bankruptcy in the near-term” given the magnitude of the payments in Pai’s plan, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a note on Friday.

Intelsat SA and other satellite providers would share as much as $14.9 billion under a proposal from federal regulators to compensate them for giving up airwaves in an auction to wireless companies, Bloomberg News reported. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan announced yesterday would provide $9.7 billion in compensation to Intelsat, SES SA and other companies for leaving the airwaves quickly, and another $3.3 billion to $5.2 billion to pay for costs of making the switch. “It’s only fair that every single reasonable cost should be covered,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said yesterday. “So under my draft rules, the winning bidders in the C-band auction would be required to reimburse satellite operators for their reasonable relocation costs.” The companies are seeking payment for freeing airwaves U.S. regulators want to reallocate for mobile users. Wall Street had been fretting that a plan unsatisfactory to satellite operators would prompt them to walk out of the negotiations. Intelsat had hired bankruptcy experts at Kirkland & Ellis LLP to prepare for possible restructuring in the event it wasn’t able to increase the amount the FCC had discussed. At stake is what portion of auction proceeds, projected to reach tens of billions of dollars, should go to satellite providers including Intelsat and SES, both based in Luxembourg, and Eutelsat SA.

Intelsat SA is considering a possible chapter 11 bankruptcy filing if U.S. regulators don’t increase the amount of compensation the company would receive for giving up some of its airwaves, Bloomberg News reported. Intelsat has hired bankruptcy experts at Kirkland & Ellis LLP to prepare for possible restructuring. Intelsat plunged as much as 34 percent to $2.61 before trading was paused for volatility. Intelsat bonds led high-yield declines, as its 9.5 percent notes due in February 2023 fell 12.3 cents on the dollar to about 50 cents, yielding about 39 percent. The chapter 11 filing would delay the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plan to move forward with an auction of the so-called C-band airwaves because Intelsat assets would be entangled in court proceedings. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai today is to announce his plans for an auction of C-band airwaves currently used by satellite providers, and a leading issue is how much to pay satellite providers including Intelsat and SES SA. The frequencies would be reallocated to mobile service providers. There’s been criticism in Congress over the prospect of high payments for the two providers, which are based in Luxembourg, for a sale of U.S. airwaves.