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Speech-technology company DynaVox Inc. and two affiliates have filed for chapter 11 protection in a bid to put the brakes on a move by secured lenders, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The company is grappling with restructuring its assets and debts estimated at between $10 million and $50 million. A supplier of systems and software to help people with speech, language and learning challenges, DynaVox warned shareholders last year it was under pressure to pay off debts.

Sbarro Inc., the 800-restaurant U.S. pizza chain in bankruptcy, has seen signs of interest from 31 potential bidders ahead of an auction for which it seeks initial offers by April 14, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Of 114 possible buyers contacted, 31 signed confidentiality agreements to learn more about Sbarro, Adam Keil, a managing director at investment bank Moelis & Co., said in an April 4 in court filing. Sbarro’s secured lenders already have a proposal to buy the company under a reorganization plan that provides for an auction to test the market for higher bids. The plan has support of holders of 98 percent of secured lender claims, Keil said. The winning bidder must pay the company’s bankruptcy loans in full and offer more than $500,000 more than the $35 million credit bid made by the secured lenders.

James River Coal Co. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling with a steep drop in prices and demand for both thermal and steel-making coal, Reuters reported yesterday. The company also said that it would enter into a $110 million debtor-in-possession financing facility with several large financial funds. James River, which expects to continue its mining operations and customer shipments through the restructuring process, said that it would use the new funding to support its business on approval by the bankruptcy court.

Standard & Poor’s said on Friday that secured lenders to a unit of Energy Future Holdings Corp. probably will get less of their money back from the bankruptcy-bound power producer as its liabilities grow, including from new loans that will fund its reorganization, Bloomberg News reported. The credit grader said it now expects creditors holding the first-lien debt of Energy Future’s Texas Competitive Electric Holdings division to recover from 30 percent to 50 percent of their principal. That compares with a previous forecast of recoveries “marginally above” 50 percent, S&P said in a statement today. Energy Future said in regulatory filings this week that it was skipping $109 million of interest payments due April 1 and using grace periods to avoid default. It also delayed an annual report that may have included a qualification to its ability to continue as a going concern, which would have triggered a default, the company said.

The reorganization plan of Eastman Kodak Co., which became effective in September, created a trust to file lawsuits to generate cash for creditors, the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle reported on Saturday. To kick off the process, the creditors’ trust sent almost 1,000 demand letters in November telling former suppliers they would be sued unless they voluntarily gave back so-called preferences, payments received within 90 days of bankruptcy. The trustee followed with lawsuits in January. Thursday, the trust had the bankruptcy court in Manhattan approve procedures to forestall filings that would otherwise deluge the bankruptcy court with papers in the preference suits. The trust and the defendant will share the mediator’s costs. For suits with less than $25,000 at issue, the shared cost is $1,000. The price rises on a sliding scale until it reached $3,000 for alleged preferences over $500,000.

Brookstone Inc., the retailer of luxury gadgets including $4,600 massage chairs, won bankruptcy court approval of a financing package to help fund operations and pay off some debt as it pursues a sale, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. Brookstone filed for bankruptcy on April 3 with a deal to sell its assets to Spencer Spirit Holdings Inc. The chain has struggled to adapt to an evolving retail landscape where online competitors dominate and consumers are cutting back on non-essentials. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin J. Carey on Friday granted the company interim approval to borrow about $91.3 million of $96.3 million in financing being provided by some of its noteholders. The company will seek approval of the remaining $5 million at an April 25 hearing.

Genco Shipping & Trading Ltd. will cut its debt by more than $1 billion by giving control of the company to its lenders in a deal that requires the dry bulk shipping company to file for bankruptcy, Reuters reported on Friday. Lenders backing a $1.06 billion credit facility would convert their debt into about 81.1 percent of company's stock, according to a regulatory filing from Thursday. Investors who hold $125 million of Genco convertible debt would receive 8.4 percent of the company. The remaining equity would be allocated to those investors funding a $100 million rights offering, while management would also get a 1.8 percent stake in the company.

Retailer Brookstone Inc. said that it would be bought by the owner of Spencer's retail chain for about $147 million as part of a pre-packaged bankruptcy plan, Reuters reported yesterday. Brookstone, which has been struggling with falling sales as shoppers cut discretionary spending, filed for Chapter 11 protection on Thursday in a U.S. bankruptcy court, along with 10 of its subsidiaries. Spencer Spirit Holdings Inc., which also owns costume retailer Spirit, will be the stalking-horse bidder at Brookstone's auction. Spencer Spirit will receive a $3.7 million break-up fee if it is not selected as the final bidder.

MF Global Inc., the defunct brokerage once led by Jon Corzine, will begin final distributions to fully satisfy $6.7 billion in claims from former customers, starting tomorrow and lasting several weeks, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. “Checks are going in the mail that will make all public customers of MF Global Inc. 100 percent whole,” trustee James Giddens said yesterday. The repayment will satisfy claims of more than 26,000 securities and commodities customers. MF Global Holdings Ltd., the brokerage’s parent company, filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 31, 2011, after a wrong-way $6.3 billion bet on bonds of some of Europe’s most indebted nations. More than $1.6 billion in customer funds that should have been segregated were missing. The company listed assets of $41 billion and debts of $39.7 billion.

Youth-oriented streetwear brand Ecko Unltd. sought chapter 11 protection on Wednesday citing the "fickle" tastes of its target audience and the economic downturn as prime causes of the company's waning sales, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Founded in 1993 by designer Marc Ecko and two partners, Ecko evolved from "just six T-shirts and a can of spray paint" into "a full scale global fashion and lifestyle company," according to a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, N.J. Ecko plans to auction off its assets in chapter 11.