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Dish Network Corp.’s motion to drop its $2.2 billion offer for airwaves owned by LightSquared Inc. became the focus of a trial over how Dish Chairman Charles Ergen bought debt in Philip Falcone’s bankrupt wireless broadband company, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Dish sent a termination letter just before a trial began yesterday bankruptcy court, where the satellite-television company and Ergen are accused of improperly acquiring the LightSquared debt. Lawyers for LightSquared told Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman that Dish’s latest move may be a gambit to drive down the price of the assets. The lawyers said Ergen began stockpiling the debt in 2011, the year before LightSquared’s bankruptcy, and spent $800 million of his personal wealth, including money in his daughter’s trust fund.

Philip Falcone’s LightSquared Inc. is set to open a trial accusing Charlie Ergen of improperly snapped up debt in the company to hijack its reorganization and get airwaves worth billions of dollars for Dish Network Corp., even as Dish has said it may withdraw its bid, Bloomberg News reported today. LightSquared, the satellite-based wireless provider controlled by Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners, is scheduled to go to trial against Ergen today before Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman. The Reston, Va.-based company filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after failing to win regulatory approval to use the airwaves.

Going-out-of-business sales could begin as early as Thursday at Loehmann's Holdings Inc.'s 39 designer discount retailers after the bankruptcy court's approval yesterday of a sale worth $16.4 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn yesterday approved the sale of two groups of assets and scheduled for Friday a hearing on a third sale worth an additional $7.5 million. Loehmann's auction, held on Friday, overall garnered $23.9 million for the company's assets.

Months after its spinoff from Hertz Global Holdings Inc., Advantage Rent a Car is asking federal regulators to approve its sale to a new owner, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The Federal Trade Commission yesterday began seeking public comment on Catalyst Capital Group Inc.’s bid to acquire Advantage, the fourth-largest independent U.S. car-rental chain, out of chapter 11. A bankruptcy judge approved the deal last week, although a rival bidder is appealing, and the FTC must still give its blessing.

Sixt Rent-a-Car LLC is appealing Advantage Rent a Car's sale to Catalyst Capital Group Inc. after arguing that it should have won the bidding at last month's auction, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Sixt, a unit of German car-rental chain Sixt SE, on Friday said that it was appealing the bankruptcy court order clearing Advantage's sale to Catalyst, court papers show. Advantage, whose spin-off from Hertz Global Holdings Inc. was completed last year, filed for chapter 11 protection in November after negotiating financing and sale agreements with Catalyst, a Canadian private equity firm.

Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, which controls bankrupt satellite company LightSquared, has asked a judge to reject a takeover effort by Dish Network Corp, saying that its $2.2 billion bid for a chunk of LightSquared's spectrum is a "Trojan horse,” Reuters reported on Friday. In a court filing on Thursday, Harbinger said that the bid undervalues LightSquared's assets, laying out its opposition to the takeover ahead of a court hearing scheduled for Jan. 9. In a separate filing, LightSquared itself also called for the rejection of the Dish plan, calling it a "short-sighted" liquidation that benefits only its proponents. The filings are the latest salvoes in a fierce battle for LightSquared's wireless spectrum. The company is fending off the Dish bid while it pursues a standalone restructuring under which it would receive $2.75 billion in fresh loans and at least $1.25 billion in equity investment from private equity firms Fortress and Melody Capital Advisors LLC, as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co and Harbinger. But that plan is contingent on LightSquared obtaining certain regulatory approvals, while Dish's competing takeover bid is not.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is being pushed back to the auction block by warring owners who can't agree on how to run the newspaper operation or how to break the impasse at the top of the company, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. New Jersey political power broker George Norcross III and ally Joseph Buckelew, who own 58 percent of the company that owns the Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and the associated digital news operation, have turned to a Delaware court for aid, saying that they are countering a move by minority owner Lewis Katz, a parking lot and sports mogul, that "presents a real risk of another bankruptcy and additional job losses" for the publications.

Historic sporting venue and casino Miami Jai-Alai received bankruptcy court approval to take its assets to auction on March 25 with a $115 million cash offer plus some liabilities from Silvermark LLC to lead bidding, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Robert A. Mark on Sunday approved Miami Jai-Alai's plan to sell, Silvermark's offer and a $4 million breakup fee for Silvermark if it is bested at auction. Judge Mark will review the results of the auction on March 26. Silvermark LLC, which has ties to New York investment firm the Andalex Group, made a similar offer prior to the August 2013 chapter 11 filing of Miami Jai-Alai operator Florida Gaming Centers Inc., but the deal fell apart when disputes arose with lenders, led by ABC Funding LLC.

The Atlantic Club casino next month will be stripped for parts and sold to two larger competitors, the Reno Gazette Journal reported on Saturday. Two companies with casinos in Atlantic City, Tropicana Entertainment and Caesars Entertainment, will pay a combined $23.4 million for the business. According to bankruptcy filings made on Friday afternoon, Tropicana will take the 1,641 slot machines and 48 table games for $8.4 million, while Caesars will get the property and its more than 800 hotel rooms for $15 million. A judge must approve the buyers at a hearing Monday.

Philip Falcone’s LightSquared Inc., the bankrupt wireless-spectrum company, said that it won’t hold a planned auction for its One Dot Six assets and is instead “pursuing and negotiating an alternative transaction,” Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The auction, originally scheduled for yesterday, was canceled by a special committee of LightSquared’s board, according to a court filing. LightSquared’s main spectrum assets were to be sold separately and had attracted a $2.2 billion bid from a unit of Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network Corp. U.S. Bank NA and Mast Capital Management LLC, a Boston-based investment adviser, had planned to start the One Dot Six auction with a bid equal to what company owes them.