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The bankruptcy court overseeing the chapter 11 proceeding of Revel AC Inc. approved bid procedures for the company that would see qualified bids submitted by Aug. 4, an auction, if one is required, on Aug. 7, and a sale hearing on Aug. 8, according to a court order, LeveragedLoan.com reported yesterday. Letters of intent to bid are due by July 18, the order said. The auction would take place at the New York offices of the company’s counsel, White & Case, and the sale hearing at bankruptcy court in Camden, N.J. According to the July 14 order, lenders under the company’s DIP facility and its pre-petition first-lien credit agreement will be permitted to credit bid.

The Houston Rockets and the Houston Astros need a new owner for the struggling television channel that broadcasts their games, and they want to keep the names of potential purchasers a secret for now, the Wall Street Journal reported today. In a request filed in bankruptcy court, officials teams asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to withhold the identity of potential buyers for Comcast SportsNet Houston from several members of the channel's board of directors. Comcast SportsNet Houston broadcasts games for two Houston professional sports teams — Major League Baseball's Astros and the National Basketball Association's Rockets — to only about 40 percent of Houston households. The network is available to Comcast Corp. subscribers but has had trouble persuading competitors such as DirecTV and Dish Network Corp. to carry the network in exchange for subscriber fees, which some have said are too high. Before the network's bankruptcy in September, Astros owner Jim Crane blamed Comcast, which manages the network, for failing to bring new deals to the table. But when Judge Marvin Isgur gave Crane and Rockets officials several months to ink new deals themselves, they weren't able to sign any major partners.

A bankruptcy auction is still weeks away, but the price of Optim Energy's Twin Oaks power plant continues to jump, with Texas giant Energy Future Holdings Corp. signaling it could go as high as $87.5 million for the facility, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Optim is selling the coal-fired plant to help pay off its debts in chapter 11. The price, offered by Blackstone Group, started out at $60 million. On Wednesday, Energy Future told the bankruptcy court overseeing its own chapter 11 proceeding it may bid as much as $87.5 million for the facility near Bremond, Texas.

A federal judge will allow a California-based investment firm to purchase West Virginia's Fairmont General Hospital out of bankruptcy for $15 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. According to court records, Judge Patrick M. Flatley plans to approve the offer for the 207-bed hospital from Alecto Healthcare Services LLC, which is expected to continue operating the facility located about 90 miles south of Pittsburgh. The Long Beach, Calif.-based Alecto promised to pay another $300,000 one year after the deal closes and spend at least $5 million on hospital improvements during the next two years, according to earlier court documents.

A bankruptcy judge today could clear Platinum Partners Value Arbitrage Fund LP to take over struggling Glacial Energy Holdings Inc. after winning a bankruptcy auction earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The value of Platinum Partners’ winning offer hasn’t been disclosed in documents filed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Throughout the case, Glacial Energy was able to spend a $122 million bankruptcy loan from a senior lender, which had also offered to purchase Glacial Energy out of bankruptcy but lost at auction. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi needs to approve the Platinum Partners deal before it can close.

A Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. subsidiary that owns the Canyon Ranch Hotel & Spa, Miami Beach filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday to ease the sale of the luxury property to the owner and manager of a portfolio of hotels that includes the Enchantment Resort in Sedona, Ariz., Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Still under construction when the failed investment bank picked it up through a deed in lieu of foreclosure in 2009, the Canyon Ranch hotel and condominium project has not generated enough cash to cover the Lehman loan, according to papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York.

In an April blog entry on its site, education technology company ConnectEDU defended the use of data "to progress students toward true success in their education and careers." Now the company, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of April, faces the wrath of the Federal Trade Commission, which has publicly expressed concern about how ConnectEDU will handle the student data it has compiled over its last 12 years of operation, The Journal reported yesterday. ConnectEDU provides interactive online tools to help students and their families and school advisors with career-planning activities. The company claims to have information about 20 million registered learners, 5,000 educational institutions and 130,000 employers across 40 countries. ConnectEDU has also collected personal information in the form of student records made available in its contracts with high schools and community colleges. The company is hoping to sell or transfer its assets through its bankruptcy proceeding. In a letter sent to the judge handling the case in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, FTC Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection Jessica Rich warned against allowing the company to sell its data assets. The company states, however, that in the event of a sale, it "will give users reasonable notice and an opportunity to remove personally identifiable data from the service."

A private-equity firm behind the Free Lance-Star’s biggest loan could become the Fredericksburg, Va., newspaper's new owner after it won a bankruptcy auction last week, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. An affiliate of Sandton Capital put in the winning bid for the 300-worker publication, which sells about 43,000 copies of its newspaper on Sundays. The publication's owner filed for bankruptcy in January, blaming declining circulation and advertising revenues.

A bankruptcy judge is expected to approve Freedom Industries' request to sell its Poca Blending facility unless a better bid is submitted by Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Pearson found the proposed buyer, Lexycon LLC, doesn't have any connection to Freedom or its former controlling officers. Judge Pearson also said that the sale's terms and conditions, and the negotiations, weren't inappropriate. Freedom filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 17. On Jan. 9, a chemical spill from another facility contaminated the water of 300,000 people in nine counties.

Bankruptcy Judge Nancy V. Alquist on Monday approved the $22.2 million sale of Baltimore manufacturer Hedwin Corp. to Japan-based Fujimori Kogyo Co., the Baltimore Business Journal reported yesterday. Judge Alquist said that she was satisfied with the quality and nature of the notices given to all parties associated with the sale. The deal is expected to keep the company’s 300 employees in their jobs, Hedwin officials said on Friday. The maker of industrial containers employs about 10 people in Reno, Nev., and the rest at its plant in Maryland.