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LodgeNet Interactive Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection with plans to be taken over by affiliates of Colony Capital LLC, which will invest $60 million and work with DirecTV to provide on-demand movies to hotel rooms, Bloomberg News reported today. LodgeNet had about $292 million in consolidated assets and about $449 million in consolidated debt as of Sept. 30, 2012, according to court papers. LodgeNet reported consolidated revenue of about $379 million for the twelve months ending Sept. 30, court papers show. LodgeNet, based in Sioux Falls, S.D., has not posted an annual profit since 2006. Last year, 95 percent of its revenue came from the hotel industry, with Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International Inc. accounting for about a third of sales, according to company filings.

Dreier LLP is demanding its share of the millions of dollars in fees earned from litigation that its former patent lawyers continued working on after the firm’s collapse, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Bankruptcy trustee Sheila M. Gowan, who is running Dreier’s liquidation, on Wednesday sued three former Dreier partners to recover the profits from the unfinished business the partners took with them when they left the firm. The firm dissolved and went into bankruptcy in December 2008, days after founder Marc Dreier was arrested for defrauding hedge funds and other investors out of more than $400 million.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee said in court documents that it is hemorrhaging money on legal and professional fees as a result of its bankruptcy and will be unable to pay its monthly operating expenses beginning in April unless the judge suspends those payments, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Friday. The archdiocese filed a motion asking Bankruptcy Judge Susan V. Kelley to allow it to suspend all payments to attorneys and consultants, except $125,000 for work on its plan of reorganization. And it would continue to pay its own attorneys to challenge sex-abuse claims with proceeds from its insurance carriers. James Stang, lead attorney for the bankruptcy creditors committee, said that he had not had a chance to discuss the motion with his colleagues, but he blamed the cost of the bankruptcy - nearly $9 million in fees paid to date - on the archdiocese's aggressive efforts to throw out hundreds of sex abuse claims.

New England Compounding Pharmacy Inc. executives lost control of the administration of its chapter 11 case when a bankruptcy court judge on Thursday appointed a trustee to represent the pharmacy for the remainder of the case, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The court's decision comes in the days following revelations that the company's four executives and shareholders were paid $16.43 million last year and transferred an additional $4.84 million to three affiliated companies that they also owned.

Kansas plane maker Hawker Beechcraft said on Friday that its key creditors overwhelmingly backed a proposed reorganization plan in a vote that moves the company closer to emerging from bankruptcy protection as early as next month, the Associated Press reported on Friday. The Wichita, Kansas-based company said that it will seek court approval to exit bankruptcy at a hearing on Thursday and expects to emerge from chapter 11 in the second half of February, if the bankruptcy judge approves the plan. It also has secured an underwriting commitment for $600 million in exit financing consisting of a term loan and revolving line of credit from JPMorgan Chase Bank and Credit Suisse.

Advisers working on the Dewey & LeBoeuf bankruptcy endured a round of criticism yesterday from the judge overseeing the defunct firm's chapter 11 case, who expressed qualms over what he considered excessive fees and expenses billed to the cash-strapped estate, the American Law Daily reported today. Taxi rides around New York, pricey hotel stays, and vague time entries all got cut Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn approved preliminary fee requests from a dozen law firms, accounting shops, and other advisory outfits. In total, $14.1 million in bills have been submitted for time spent working on the bankruptcy from its inception in late May through the end of October, according to our past reports. Even those advisers that received Glenn's preliminary approval won't be fully paid any time soon; firms can only receive what was allocated months ago in a budget set by lead lender JPMorgan Chase, and the few firms that did not go over budget can only get 80 percent for now.

Hostess Brands Inc.'s bid to sell its bread brands to Flowers Foods Inc. has hit a roadblock with unsecured creditors objecting to the break-up fees Flowers is entitled to for being appointed as the stalking-horse bidder, Reuters reported yesterday. The break-up fees is too high and contains an unusual "most favored nation" provision that gives Flowers a windfall without conferring an equal benefit to Hostess, a committee representing unsecured creditors said in its objections filed yesterday. Flowers on Jan. 11 agreed to buy Wonder and other well-known bread brands from Hostess for $360 million as well as its Beefsteak brand for another $30 million. The Flowers purchase is subject to higher bids at a court-supervised auction and the company is entitled to a break-up fee of $12.6 million for the bread brands and $1.05 million for the Beefsteak brand.

A newly reached $159 million antitrust settlement for dairy farmers is good news for creditors of defunct law firm Howrey LLP, whose former role in the case could entitle it to a share of the attorneys’ fees, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Dairy farmers had sued the farmer cooperative Dairy Farmers of America for allegedly conspiring with Dean Foods Co. to undercut competition and thereby depress the milk prices the farmers received. The cooperative does not admit any wrongdoing under the settlement, which canceled a trial that was to have begun Tuesday. Once Howrey’s job to represent the farmer plaintiffs, its lawyers took the case with them to their new home at Baker & Hostetler LLP following Howrey’s March 2011 dissolution. The now-liquidating Howrey is currently in talks to divvy up the $48 million in attorneys’ fees and $7 million in expenses awarded in connection with the farmers’ $140 million settlement with Dean Foods, reached in July 2011. Court papers show that lead plaintiffs’ lawyer Bob Abrams, the former Howrey litigation co-chairman and current chairman of Baker’s antitrust group, is in charge of divvying up the fees among the various firms working for the plaintiffs, including the Howrey estate.

Eastman Kodak Co., the bankrupt photography pioneer, won bankruptcy court approval for $844 million in financing that it will use to complete its restructuring, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The package of loans, approved yesterday by Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper, can also be converted into $644 million exit financing to fund Kodak’s emergence from court protection, according to a court filing. Kodak, based in Rochester, New York, filed for bankruptcy in January 2012. Earlier this month, it won court approval to sell patents to a group of technology companies including Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

Struggling to find a buyer that would keep operations intact, executives at solar panel parts maker Satcon Technology Corp. are now looking for someone who would be willing to purchase the company in pieces at an auction, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today.
Satcon Technology officials asked the company's bankruptcy judge to alter the court-approved auction rules to bump the company's auction to Feb. 4---two weeks earlier than they had planned.