Community news conglomerate GateHouse Media Inc. yesterday sketched out its plan to shake up its nearly $1.2 billion debt load in preparation for the launch of a new local media company combining GateHouse's hundreds of publications with the Dow Jones Local Media Group string of small newspapers, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Led by Newcastle Investment Corp., all 80 of GateHouse's secured lenders voted in support of a chapter 11 plan that will allow them to cash out their debt at 40 cents on the dollar or pick up a stake in the new company.
Comcast Corp. is prepared to bid if it can force a sale of the financially troubled, regional-sports network that carries the games of the Houston Astros baseball team and the Houston Rockets, the city's basketball team, court papers show, Reuters reported yesterday. Affiliates of Comcast, which owns NBCUniversal, on Friday filed for involuntary bankruptcy against Houston Regional Sports Network LP, and said in court papers that the network should be put up for sale for the benefit of creditors. Comcast "believes the network's assets have meaningful value, and would be prepared to make a bid to acquire either the network (under a plan of reorganization) or substantially all of its assets," the media conglomerate said in court documents. The network's three-member board consists of representatives of Comcast, the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association and the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball, according to documents filed by a Comcast affiliate. The network has been locked in a dispute with cable and satellite television providers over how much it should receive per subscriber, which has limited the network's reach.
Exide Technologies Inc. wants to keep control of its chapter 11 case through next summer as the battery maker continues to work toward a plan to reorganize and exit bankruptcy, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. Exide said in a court filing on Wednesday that it wants until May 31, 2014, to file a reorganization plan without the threat of rival proposals and until July 24, 2014, to solicit votes on such a plan. Without the approval, Exide's exclusivity periods would end on Oct. 8 and Dec. 7 of this year.
After Washington Mutual became the biggest bank failure in U.S. history, 92 of its officers and executives tried to profit from the collapse through illegal golden-parachute payments, according to a claim by the bank's receiver, Courthousenews.com reported yeserday. The WMI Liquidating Trust sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, and the 92 former bank officers in Federal Court. Washington Mutual filed for bankruptcy and was placed in receivership in 2008. JPMorgan Chase bought it for $1.9 billion in September 2008, in a deal brokered by the federal government. WaMu had $310 billion in assets when it collapsed. In its 103-page lawsuit, the WMI Liquidating Trust seeks a judgment that various severance and benefits sought in bankruptcy proceedings are prohibited by the federal Golden Parachute Regulations.
Recycler Keywell LLC has filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming weak demand from manufacturers for the steel, nickel and other metals that the company collects from a network of more than 1,000 scrapyards, industrial plants and government agencies across the country, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Executives put Chicago-based Keywell under chapter 11 protection on Tuesday with a plan to sell the company, which supplies recycled titanium, stainless steel and other metals to buyers like steel mills and aerospace manufacturers. In court papers, the company said that it has a purchase offer from fellow scrap-metal recycler Cronimet Holdings Inc., but it will continue to look for higher bids. Keywell officials didn't disclose the value of Cronimet's initial offer, but it is expected to be revealed in future bankruptcy court filings.
Atari Inc., a pioneer of video games, filed for chapter 11 in January, saying that it wanted to sell its portfolio of more than 200 video games to a highest bidder, but it is looking like most creditors will only recoup a fraction what they are owed, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. After it reached out to more than 180 potential purchasers from the videogame and financial worlds, Atari received only 15 preliminary bids. None of those offers were deemed "acceptable" by the company, so it decided to sell off its assets in pieces. A July auction fetched Atari a total of $5.1 million for its "Humongous," "Total Annihilation" and other smaller franchises. The company failed to sell the intellectual property related to its Atari name as well as its valuable "Rollercoaster Tycoon" and "Test Drive" franchises. It had hoped to get at least $20 million for those assets. Under its bankruptcy exit proposal, Atari will pay off a $3.8 million bankruptcy loan to lender Alden Global Capital. Atari will use any remaining money to pay up to $560,000 to unsecured creditors when it leaves bankruptcy, another $560,000 a year after that and $630,000 the following year, the company said in court filings.
Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman blocked a proposed appointee to a committee to oversee the bankruptcy auction of broadband company LightSquared LP, citing a conflict of interests, and admonished the company for making the nomination, Reuters reported yesterday. Donna Alderman cannot be part of the committee because she could be seen as having a bias against satellite television company Dish Network Corp., which is seeking to acquire LightSquared's spectrum, Judge Chapman said. Alderman, a former director at satellite operator DBSD, lost her job when Dish acquired DBSD in 2011, then unsuccessfully sought $7 million from Dish for her role in generating value for DBSD's estate. She ended up with $750,000 in severance.
With a bankruptcy judge’s signature, the Chapter 11 exit plan for the Great Platte River Road Archway has canceled the 13-year-old museum’s promise to pay back more than $19 million worth of bonds that were used to construct it, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The pioneer-honoring museum—a 1,500-ton structure that sits atop beams that straddle Interstate 80—intends to pay back those investors a total of $50,000, according to the plan filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Lincoln, Neb. Officials said that the museum’s heavy debt burden made it tough to rally donations. If it managed to clear those debts through bankruptcy, they said that the attraction would be able to pay for its operations using donations and tickets sales.
GateHouse Media Inc., the community newspaper publisher overseen by the co-chairman of Fortress Investment Group LLC, said that it will seek votes today on a plan to reorganize in bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Fairport, N.Y.-based GateHouse has proposed a pre-packaged plan that will allow it to enter chapter 11 bankruptcy with creditor support if more than 67 percent of debt holders accept, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday. The publisher has said that it plans to file for bankruptcy as part of a move to merge its media assets with those recently bought by Newcastle Investment Corp. The reorganization, which has support from most creditors, hinges on the combination of GateHouse with assets of Dow Jones Local Media Group, which Newcastle bought from News Corp. in this month for $87 million.
Coal-mining company Patriot Coal Corp. won bankruptcy court approval to broaden an ongoing investigation into the spinoffs that it says allowed its predecessors to dump hundreds of millions of dollars in legacy liabilities on its shoulders, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Bankruptcy Judge Kathy Surratt-States on Friday authorized Patriot and its unsecured creditors to add Arch Coal Inc. to a pending probe into former parent Peabody Energy Corp. On Thursday, the judge cleared Patriot and the creditors to also investigate private-equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners LLC.
