%1

A U.S. unit of China’s Suntech Power Holdings Corp., once the world’s largest solar-panel maker, followed its parent in seeking bankruptcy protection from creditors after increased competition pushed down prices, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. San Francisco-based Suntech America Inc., an affiliate of Wuxi, China-based Suntech Power, today listed more than $100 million each in assets and debt in chapter 11 filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. Suntech Power, following creditor demands, filed for chapter 15 protection last February in Manhattan. U.S. bondholders moved to put the company into bankruptcy on their own with an involuntary bankruptcy liquidation under chapter 7 after it defaulted on about $541 million of their debt.

HEI Inc. filed for chapter 11 protection on Sunday after declining sales triggered a review of strategic options for its business, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. A developer and manufacturer of microelectronics, substrates, electromechanical hardware and embedded software for the medical, telecommunications, military, aerospace and industrial markets, the Minneapolis-based company estimated its debts and assets at between $10 million and $50 million. Court papers said that the company will be seeking expedited consideration of motions that will allow it to continue its business while in bankruptcy.

LightSquared is seeking to pay a $200 million breakup fee to the backers of its restructuring, including Fortress Investment Group LLC, in case the mobile satellite company’s chapter 11 exit doesn’t pan out as planned, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. LightSquared said in a Wednesday bankruptcy court filing that Fortress would get nearly half the $200 million, payable only if LightSquared opts for an alternative restructuring proposal. Two other backers of the plan, Centerbridge Partners LP and Sig Holdings Inc., would get the rest. Philip Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners, which currently controls LightSquared’s equity and is investing new money in the restructuring, wouldn’t get any of the breakup fee.

The New Hampshire company that fell into bankruptcy following a failed deal with Apple Inc. is asking to pay millions in bonuses to its senior executives, the Wall Street Journal reported today. GT Advanced Technologies Inc. says it needs to keep the identities of those in line for bonuses secret to keep its business from being damaged. Less than a year after announcing it would transform itself from a solar-power and sapphire-producing-equipment maker to a maker of smartphone screen material for Apple, GT filed for chapter 11 protection, blaming Apple. Apple has denied it was responsible for GT’s collapse. Pay enhancement is necessary to motivate “the key drivers” in GT’s bid to restore its business in bankruptcy, lawyers said. Court filings outlining the bonus proposal say that GT’s stock, once a major component of executive compensation, is no longer good for motivating performance by company leaders.

A bankruptcy court has allowed defunct video streaming company Aereo Inc. to auction its TV streaming technology assets, Reuters reported on Friday. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan ruled on Wednesday that Aereo could sell its assets, after the company reached an agreement with broadcasters over the sale process. These broadcasters include CBS Corp., Comcast Corp.'s NBC, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and Twenty-First Century Fox Inc.'s Fox. Under the agreement, Aereo will allow the broadcasters to attend the auction of the assets and provide them a weekly update on the status of the sale process. Aereo filed for bankruptcy in November, five months after the U.S. Supreme Court said that it violated broadcasters' copyrights by capturing live and recorded programs on miniature antennas and transmitting them to subscribers for $8-$12 a month.

GT Advanced Technologies Inc. said that it is pursuing the sale of its sapphire furnaces and will pay former partner, Apple Inc., a portion of the cash it gets from the sale, Reuters reported yesterday. The furnaces were installed to make sapphire glass for Apple, which loaned GT Advanced $439 million for the project. GT Advanced, which invested heavily into increasing production of sapphire materials for Apple, blamed the supply agreement for forcing it into bankruptcy in October, a move that shocked investors and sent its stock plummeting more than 90 percent to under $1 before Nasdaq suspended the shares.

Several major broadcasters refused to back down Friday from attempts to control when and to whom bankrupt Aereo Inc. can sell its technology, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Facing an impasse between the failed TV-streaming service and broadcasters including CBS Corp., Walt Disney Co.'s ABC, Comcast Corp.'s NBC and 21st Century Fox Inc.'s Fox, Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane held off on approving a proposal outlining how Aereo plans to sell its assets. As of Friday afternoon, Aereo and broadcasters were privately discussing ways to resolve differences on the sale process, including at what point Aereo can begin deleting its servers and how much time broadcasters would have to oppose any prospective buyers.

LightSquared, the bankrupt wireless venture owned by Phil Falcone's Harbinger Capital Partners, on Thursday submitted a new restructuring plan under which Harbinger would hold onto a sizable stake in the company, Reuters reported yesterday. The plan is the latest in a string of so far unsuccessful restructuring efforts as Harbinger wrangles for control of LightSquared with its largest creditor, satellite mogul Charles Ergen. Throughout LightSquared's two-and-a-half-year journey in chapter 11, the company and creditors have advanced various proposals to fund its exit, some including Harbinger and others all but eliminating it from the capital structure. The latest would give Harbinger a 44 percent equity stake in a reorganized LightSquared, but no board membership or control over day-to-day operations. Fortress Investment Group and Centerbridge Partners, both LightSquared investors, would own 26 percent and 8 percent, respectively. Ergen's $1 billion chunk of LightSquared's loan debt would be repaid via notes.

Filing for bankruptcy was supposed to protect Aereo Inc. from broadcasters that killed the TV-streaming company's business after years of litigation. Instead, it has only intensified the fighting, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. Aereo, which allowed users to watch and record broadcast TV through the Internet, halted its services in June after the U.S. Supreme Court determined the company was unlawfully exploiting the copyrighted works of major broadcasters without permission or payment. Aereo is down to 12 employees and $3.6 million in cash, an amount it hopes will last long enough to pull off some kind of sale.

A $1 billion pact between Nortel Networks Corp.'s U.S. unit and bondholders won court approval Thursday over the protests of the one-time Canadian technology giant, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The ruling from Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross means distressed-debt investors could stand to recover as much as $5 billion from Nortel’s collapse in 2009, including more than $1 billion in interest on $4 billion worth of debt. The Canadian parent company tried to derail the deal between Nortel U.S. and bondholders, arguing the settlement was the product of a defective process. The U.S. unit defended the settlement as a compromise on a claim for interest that could have reached $1.6 billion.