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Nearly four years after Lehman Brothers touched off a worldwide financial crisis when it filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15, 2008, the estate of the failed investment bank continues to control more than $10 billion of real estate assets in its $40.5 billion portfolio, the New York Times reported today. Its largest asset is Archstone, the Colorado-based apartment giant whose $22 billion takeover in 2007 helped create Lehman’s fatal mountain of debt. One of the largest apartment owners in the nation, Archstone had 59,419 rental apartments in 181 properties as of March 31. Last month, Lehman registered Archstone for a public offering, hoping to use those proceeds to help pay its creditors. The company's plan has been to wait for better days in the real estate markets and eventually sell everything at prices unattainable in the financial crisis. And while Lehman was waiting for property values to recover from recessionary lows, the real estate team initiated plans to restructure troubled financing, correct other problems and fill its rentable buildings with tenants before offering them for sale.

Kodak said yesterday that it is reshuffling executives and cutting thousands of jobs as the pioneering photography company tries to emerge from bankruptcy protection, the Associated Press reported yesterday. Eastman Kodak Co. said that it cut about 2,700 employees worldwide since the beginning of the year and plans to cut about 1,000 more by the end of 2012. Annual savings from the cuts should reach about $330 million, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Bankruptcy Judge Stuart M. Bernstein cleared Journal Register Co. to tap its $25 million bankruptcy loan, but criticized the struggling publisher for swaddling the private-equity firm that serves as the company's owner, lender and proposed bankruptcy purchaser with protections under the proposed financing deal, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The company is looking to sell its assets in bankruptcy, with a bid composed of debt from an affiliate of Alden Global Capital LLC , which in 2011 bought the equity and debt Journal Register had handed lenders as part of its last bankruptcy exit.

Shares of Digital Domain Media Group Inc. fell as much as 45 percent after the company, which makes digital special effects for TV and films, said that it may consider bankruptcy protection as it looks to pay down debt, Reuters reported on Friday. The Academy Award-winning company, which created special effects for movies such as "Titanic" and "Transformers," defaulted in paying interest on $35 million senior notes on Wednesday. Digital Domain also said Chief Executive John Textor has resigned. The company said it was weighing options on appointing a new CEO. Textor said in a regulatory filing on August 29 that he planned to take the company private, but did not give details. Textor owns a 23 percent stake in the company.

CDC Corp., a China-based enterprise software developer also known as Chinadotcom, won a judge’s approval of a bankruptcy reorganization plan where shareholders will get as much as $6.10 a share, Bloomberg News reported today. The cash for equity holders resulted from CDC’s sale of its 87 percent interest in CDC Software Corp. for $249.8 million to Archipelago Holding, an affiliate of Vista Equity Holdings. After paying a $65 million secured judgment claim and other costs, CDC was left with a net of $172.8 million when the sale was completed in April. Unsecured creditors with $2.9 million in claims were paid in full and thus did not vote on the plan. The case is In re CDC Corp., 11-79079, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Georgia (Atlanta).

Telecommunications company Vivaro Corp., which says it's the largest provider of voice communications services between Mexico and the U.S., filed for chapter 11 protection on Wednesday, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Vivaro's primary business is selling prepaid calling cards to Hispanic customers in the U.S., under the Digame, Mi Carnal, El Chavo and Eroika brands. Established in 2000 and based in New York City, Vivaro claimed between $50 million and $100 million in assets and between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities in its bankruptcy petition.

Solyndra LLC, the failed solar-panel maker, won preliminary court approval of a $3.5 million settlement with former workers, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Mary Walrath granted tentative approval of the settlement and set a hearing for Oct. 17 to consider making the ruling final, according to court documents filed yesterday. Former employees sued Solyndra, which received a $535 million U.S. Energy Department loan guarantee before collapsing, arguing that they did not get adequate notice when the company fired almost its entire workforce last year. The settlement resolves allegations that Solyndra violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires 60 days’ notice of firings, and sets up a $3.5 million fund that will be distributed to the workers two weeks after the accord takes effect.

Mortgage lender Residential Capital is poised to reap billions in a bankruptcy auction of its assets next month, Reuters reported yesterday. Instead of being forced to hold a fire sale, ResCap has lined up high-profile bidders, including Fortress Investment Group's Nationstar Holdings and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., for an October 23 auction that could raise the money it needs to repay creditors. The key asset on the block is ResCap's mortgage loan servicing and loan origination business. The sale is expected to raise at least $4 billion, which will then become part of a pool of money used to pay back Ally and other investors, including those who bought mortgage-backed securities tied to ResCap home loans that went bad.

Independent power producer Dynegy Inc. said that it has won court approval of its bankruptcy plan and expects to emerge from chapter 11 by Oct. 1, Reuters reported yesterday. The plan approved Bankruptcy Judge Cecelia Morris calls for a combination of Houston-based Dynegy and its Dynegy Holdings unit into a new company led by current CEO Robert Flexon, and in which creditors would take a 99 percent stake. Shareholders would get a claim for the other 1 percent, plus warrants that could boost their stake to 13.5 percent in five years. Unsecured creditors would recover 59 cents to 89 cents on the dollar, and existing shareholders would recover nothing.

Journal Register Co., which publishes the New Haven Register (Conn.) and was acquired last year by Alden Global Capital Ltd., filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in less than four years, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The company listed assets of more than $100 million in chapter 11 documents filed yesterday. Journal Register Co. said that it owes creditors about $162.3 million, mostly secured debt tied to its 2009 exit from bankruptcy. 21st CMH Acquisition Co., an affiliate of funds managed by Alden, agreed to act as the stalking-horse bidder for Journal Register's assets in a bankruptcy auction, according to court papers. Journal Register expects the sale process to take about 90 days.