Texas-based Falcon Steel Co. is preparing to send its bankruptcy-exit plan to creditors, who have the power to reject the company's proposal to repay debts in quarterly installments, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Creditors have until March 24 to vote on a reorganization plan for the maker of steel lattice towers for power lines, according to a timeline set by Bankruptcy Judge Michael Lynn. Since Falcon Steel filed for bankruptcy on June 29, company officials found new orders to build transmission towers for the utility industry and negotiated a deal to refinance a $17.5 million bank loan.
LightSquared’s path toward exiting bankruptcy will reach a key milestone on Monday as scheduled, despite the recent introduction of a hedge-fund firm’s rival exit plan that threatened to once again disrupt the contentious chapter 11 case, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman said on Wednesday that she will begin hearing evidence on Monday morning from LightSquared on why its current restructuring plan should be confirmed by the court. The hearings are expected to last the majority of the week and possibly spill into the next. Last week, Solus Alternative Asset Management LP introduced its own proposal for the company’s future. The firm said that its plan to pump $2 billion into Philip Falcone’s wireless venture is better than the one the company has presented, which involves little new money and puts the company in the hands of investors including Centerbridge Partners LP and Fortress Investment Group LLC.
Solus Alternative Asset Management LP said its proposal to pump $2 billion into LightSquared is better than the plan the company has presented, which involves little new money and puts the company in the hands of investors including Centerbridge Partners LP and Fortress Investment Group LLC, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The LightSquared proposal "unfairly discriminates" against other creditors in favor of Fortress, Centerbridge and an entity controlled by JPMorgan Chase & Co., Solus said in one of its two Wednesday filings. Solus wants its proposal to be heard on the same timetable as the LightSquared plan. Judge Shelley C. Chapman yesterday denied Solus's request to shorten the timetable for its plan, but did say that it can be discussed at a hearing next Wednesday.
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.
Apple Inc. was accused in a lawsuit of embarking on an aggressive campaign to poach employees from a lithium-ion battery maker amid reports that it’s developing an electric car, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The lawsuit, filed this month in Massachusetts state court by A123 Systems LLC, also accuses five of its former employees of violating non-disclosure agreements as they either went to work for Apple or planned to. The case was moved to federal court in Boston this week. A123 rose to prominence in 2007 when then-General Motors Corp. worked with it to develop battery technology as the automaker prepared what would become the Chevrolet Volt, an electric-plug-in hybrid car. GM ultimately picked South Korea-based LG Chem Ltd. as the winner of the first battery contract for the Volt in 2009. Wanxiang Group Corp. won approval from the U.S. government to acquire A123 out of bankruptcy reorganization in 2013.
A U.S. judge dismissed the bulk of two lawsuits by bankrupt wireless venture LightSquared and equity owner Harbinger Capital Partners accusing Deere & Co and other GPS firms of misleading them about interference concerns and hastening the company's insolvency, Reuters reported yesterday. In an opinion rendered yesterday in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman threw out Harbinger's lawsuit, and nixed nine of 11 claims asserted by LightSquared, serving a blow to its hope for hefty damages that could help salvage its business. LightSquared has been in bankruptcy since 2012, when the Federal Communications Commission revoked its license to build a planned wireless network over fears it could interfere with GPS systems. Harbinger, the hedge fund run by Phil Falcone, would have to give up much of its equity and all of its operational control of LightSquared under a restructuring plan being voted on by creditors. The lawsuits alleged that Deere, Garmin International, Trimble Navigation Ltd., and a GPS industry group led LightSquared to believe the planned network would not pose an interference risk. It wasn't until LightSquared had pumped $4 billion into the project, the plaintiffs argued, that the GPS industry voiced their concerns. Judge Berman dismissed many claims from both plaintiffs, including breach of contract and civil conspiracy, leaving alive only LightSquared's claims for negligent misrepresentation and constructive fraud.
A bankruptcy judge on Monday denied a request by GT Advanced Technologies Inc. shareholders to have a voice in the former Apple Inc. supplier’s bankruptcy, though he left open the possibility for the group to come back with a new proposal, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Henry Boroff issued the one-paragraph denial after a Monday hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Springfield, Mass. The shareholders had argued they should be given an official role in the case — with expenses paid for out of the debtor’s coffers — because GT Advanced’s business is still worth enough to leave a payout for them.
AT&T Inc. said that it will buy bankrupt NII Holdings Inc's wireless business in Mexico for $1.875 billion, less outstanding net debt, Reuters reported today. NII Holdings, the parent of Nextel operators in Latin America, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. in September after struggling with $5.8 billion in debt and fierce competition in Brazil and Mexico. AT&T plans to combine Nextel Mexico with Iusacell, which the company acquired in November for $1.7 billion. While Nextel Mexico has about 3 million subscribers, Iusacell, Mexico's third-largest wireless operator, has over 8 million subscribers.
