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Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane on Friday officially approved American Airlines’ merger agreement with US Airways, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram reported on Saturday. And in keeping with his decision at a March 27 hearing, the written order did not approve a $20 million severance package proposed for American Chief Executive Tom Horton—a plan that U.S. Trustee Tracy Hope Davis had objected to. The two carriers had originally agreed to pay Horton $9.9375 million in cash and $9.9375 million in shares of the new company’s common stock once the merger closed. Davis argued that the payment did not conform to restrictions placed on executive compensation by the Bankruptcy Code.

Geokinetics Inc. said Friday that it has emerged from chapter 11 protection under a restructuring plan that gives control of the company to its senior secured noteholders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Under the plan, Geokinetics's senior secured noteholders forgave $300 million in debt for the restructured company's new equity.

Cengage Learning Inc., the educational publisher owned by Apax Partners LLP, said that it is seeking to negotiate with creditors on a restructuring plan and may need to file bankruptcy as part of its turnaround efforts, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Cengage, which develops teaching materials for colleges, schools, libraries and corporations, was acquired by a private equity group led by Apax from Thomson Reuters Corp. for $7.75 billion in 2007. The company said on March 22 that it had drawn down most of its revolving credit lines and hired restructuring adviser Alvarez & Marsal, legal firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Lazard Ltd., raising the prospect of bankruptcy. Cengage had $417.5 million cash as of March 31, and long-term debt of about $5.25 billion, it said in a statement. The company has $525 million in revolving credit, an amount poised to shrink to $300 million July 5 when part of the loans are due. The company disclosed in March it had drawn $518 million from the facilities.

Billionaire investor John Paulson has put a real estate unit of his hedge fund into bankruptcy to thwart a lawsuit by a lender that claims it is owed tens of millions of dollars related to the recent sale of several luxury resorts, Reuters reported yesterday. According to court filings on Wednesday, MSR Hotels & Resorts Inc. sought chapter 11 protection from creditors to sell its remaining assets and wind down. MSR in February won court approval to sell four resorts to the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. sovereign wealth fund for $1.5 billion, including assumed debt, court papers show.

The trustee liquidating Peregrine Financial Group Inc. is weighing whether to sue two banks that handled accounts for the defunct brokerage firm, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Trustee Ira Bodenstein sees "a number of viable claims" against U.S. Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., though no decision has yet been made to pursue the banks, according to a court document filed on Wednesday.

AMR Corp., the airline merging with US Airways Group Inc., won a judge’s approval to borrow as much as $3.25 billion as it moves toward exiting bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. AMR, the parent of American Airlines, sought the financing to take advantage of low interest rates, fund costs tied to its reorganization and repay debt. The loans, approved yesterday at a court hearing by Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane will be American’s “primary source” of financing for emerging from bankruptcy, said Richard Hahn, an attorney for the Fort Worth, Texas-based company. American filed for bankruptcy in 2011 and is planning to merge with US Airways to create the world’s largest airline. American is set to complete its bankruptcy reorganization through the merger with Tempe, Arizona-based US Airways later this year.

The maker of the zero-calorie nutritional drink Skinny Water is seeking to fatten up its coffers, filing for bankruptcy amid a lack of funding and facing the loss of its trademarks, Reuters reported today. Skinny Nutritional Corp. filed for Chapter 11 protection last week and announced the filing yesterday amid a clamor from some consumers and investors for information about the status of the company. The company listed about $3 million in assets and $6 million in liabilities, but a budding dispute with its lender, Trim Capital, could make for a contentious case. In Wednesday's statement, Skinny said that it entered a $15 million financing deal with Trim last year but received only $1.27 million of the money. Skinny alleged that Trim "failed to complete" its obligations, then began foreclosure proceedings that would have forced Skinny to turn over its intellectual property assets to Trim in the absence of a bankruptcy filing.

With a liquidation trustee now overseeing Dewey & LeBoeuf's bankruptcy, the professional advisers who guided the defunct firm through its first nine months of chapter 11 proceedings want to be paid the balance of the $23.6 million that they say they have earned for their contributions to the case, American Law Daily reported yesterday. The advisers—10 law, financial, and restructuring firms—submitted final fee requests in bankruptcy court this week that detail hours worked and expenses incurred from the time Dewey filed for bankruptcy in May 2012 through March 22 of this year, when the firm's chapter 11 plan became effective.

U.S. Trustee Roberta A. DeAngelis is objecting to casino owner Revel AC Inc.'s restructuring plan, taking aim at "expansive" provisions meant to shield everyone from lenders to equity holders from liability, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. DeAngelis on Tuesday urged a judge to stop a proposed debt-for-equity swap in its tracks unless certain tweaks are made to the company's chapter 11 exit plan. In particular, the trustee took aim at exculpation and release provisions that Revel wants to hand a host of parties.

Secured lenders led by Credit Suisse AG have been declared winners of an auction for the oil and gas drilling assets of ATP Oil & Gas Corp. with an offer of $690.8 million, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Most of the purchase price will be in the form of canceled debt. Credit Suisse leads a syndicate of investors that have been keeping ATP going in bankruptcy, providing funds to support its activities in the Gulf of Mexico.