LightSquared wants its bankruptcy judge to halt Philip Falcone's lawsuits against the global positioning systems industry and the U.S. government until after LightSquared is out of bankruptcy, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In a bankruptcy court filing on Wednesday, LightSquared said that the bankruptcy court has the power to stop these suits filed by Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, which currently controls LightSquared's equity. The money Harbinger is going after, LightSquared said, is actually money that could also belong to the LightSquared estate.
Giants Stadium LLC is urging a judge to allow $600 million-plus in claims against Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. related to interest-rate swaps used to finance the East Rutherford, N.J., football stadium, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review. In a partially redacted filing in bankruptcy court on Tuesday, lawyers for holders of claims once owned by the New York Giants football team said that Lehman's argument that the entity actually owes Lehman money is wrong. "Giants Stadium properly terminated the swaps and reasonably calculated its loss," lawyers for the entity said in the filing. Lehman, which is suing the Giants Stadium entity for $100 million saying that it is actually the one owed money, declined to comment.
The union for more than 1,100 workers at Atlantic City, N.J.’s Trump Taj Mahal casino who are rallying to save their health-care and pension benefits are now fighting in two places: in the courtroom and on the streets, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Several hundred protesters plan to block a major traffic intersection near the Atlantic City Expressway yesterday to draw attention to pressure that workers who are unionized through Unite Here Local 54 face, said union spokesman Ben Begleiter. Billionaire Carl Icahn promised to take over the struggling casino, whose owner filed for bankruptcy last month and put $100 million into its operations. But that offer stands only if casino officials can deliver about $15 million worth of cuts from workers and property tax relief from Atlantic City. Casino officials want to stop contributing money to worker pensions and to end their health care coverage.
Bankruptcy lawyers who are preparing to sell Source Home Entertainment's manufacturing division, which makes 60 percent of U.S. retailers' checkout-counter displays, said that there won't be much left from the sale for unsecured creditors who are owed money by the Florida company, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In a proposed payout plan filed on Monday, Source Home Entertainment lawyers said that unsecured creditors should expect to be repaid less than 1 percent of what they are owed by the company, which filed for bankruptcy after shutting down its magazine- and book-distribution business — its biggest division — and laying off more than 5,000 workers in late May.
Revel AC Inc. should reopen bidding for its Atlantic City casino, which Brookfield Property Partners LP won at auction last week, according to a Florida investor who claimed that he was cheated of a chance to make a higher offer, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Revel, which cost $2.4 billion to build, closed last month after two years of unsuccessfully trying to make a profit in the struggling New Jersey gambling center. It accepted a $110 million offer from Toronto-based Brookfield on Oct. 1 after an all-night auction. Glenn Straub, owner of the Palm Beach Polo Golf and Country Club in Wellington, Florida, protested the way the auction was handled, saying in a court filing Oct. 5 that Revel broke an agreement to provide details about competing bids. Straub also said a “life or death” medical issue hindered his ability to counter Brookfield’s winning offer. The sale is scheduled to go up for approval today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Camden, New Jersey.
Comcast Corp. took its fight against the sale of the Texas television channel that broadcasts Major League Baseball's Houston Astros and the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets to the courtroom, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Marvin Isgur began hearing arguments on Monday over whether Comcast SportsNet Houston can get out of bankruptcy by selling itself to DirecTV and AT&T Inc. Under the proposal, the channel would not repay a roughly $100 million loan that Comcast extended to get the network started in 2012.
Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. Monday failed to persuade a bankruptcy judge to sign off on an agreement with Carl Icahn that would have allowed the beleaguered gambling company to use its scarce cash as it attempts to survive in chapter 11, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The ruling from Judge Kevin Gross sent the company and Icahn into renewed talks about what it will take to keep the money flowing at the Atlantic City operation, and its only remaining casino, the Trump Taj Mahal on the boardwalk, open. As secured lender, Icahn has the power to refuse Trump Entertainment access to the cash it needs to mount a turnaround effort. Judge Gross sided with unsecured creditors who said that it is too soon, less than a month into the bankruptcy, to cement terms that would tie the hands of low-ranking creditors in a chapter 11 proceeding that offers them little or nothing. (Subscription required.) http://online.wsj.com/articles/judge-rejects-trump-entertainment-deal-w…
In related news, the union representing workers of the bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. plans to block an Atlantic City street two days from now to protest management requests to give up their pension and health care plans, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Unite Here, which represents 270,000 workers nationally, met with Trump representatives twice last week and has been unable to come to terms, Bob McDevitt, president of the union’s Local 54, said in an e-mailed statement. Another meeting is scheduled for this week. Trump Entertainment, the casino operator founded by Donald Trump, declared bankruptcy last month in the wake of continued declines in gambling in New Jersey. The company owns the shuttered Trump Plaza hotel and its Trump Taj Mahal may close next month. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2014-10-06/trump-casino-union-to-bl…
A bankruptcy judge in Delaware on Friday granted a motion to move the pending bankruptcy of Great Northern Paper Co.’s East Millinocket operation to Maine, the Bangor (Maine) Daily News reported on Saturday. More than 20 creditors, including the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket and the Maine attorney general, asked that the case be moved from Delaware to bankruptcy court in Maine because 56 percent of the 1,159 creditors are within the state. Attorneys for GNP objected to having the case moved from the state where the company was incorporated, in part, because a new trustee would have to be appointed to administer the case.
Energy Future Holdings (EFH), the bankrupt Texas power giant, is warning that its restructuring plans could be put on hold if the IRS decides to pursue a more than $7 billion tax bill against the company, the Dallas Morning News reported on Friday. Dallas-based EFH is planning to sell off the transmission company Oncor at auction early next year. In court papers filed on Wednesday, EFH warned that if the IRS decides the power company must pay the taxes it could squash the deal. Companies including Hunt Consolidated, NextEra Energy, Berkshire Hathaway and CenterPoint Energy are reportedly examining a potential bid for Oncor. The federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware has ruled that EFH doesn’t have to publicly name the bidders.
A bankruptcy judge said yesterday that Energy Future Holdings Corp. doesn't have to name names of the contenders as it searches for a lead bidder to open an auction for rights to its valuable Oncor stake, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. The ruling from Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi means that unhappy creditors won't get a peek behind the curtains of a process that they say could cost them billions of dollars. "The identity of bidders and bid details are off the table" as creditors question company officials in advance of an Oct. 17 court session where Energy Future will seek approval on rules for the auction, Judge Sontchi said at a hearing yesterday.
