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The U.S. unit of Nortel Networks Corp., the defunct telecommunications company, asked a judge to schedule a November trial on whether to throw out $2.67 billion in claims filed on behalf of 38,000 U.K. retirees, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. The request came after a mediator gave up on settlement talks last month, saying that bondholders, retirees and other creditors failed to agree on how to split $9 billion in cash. Nortel Networks Inc. asked the judge overseeing its slice of the multi-country bankruptcy to first decide whether the U.K. retirees have a legitimate claim to the money before deciding how best to divide it. Retiree representatives asked the judge to focus instead on how to split cash among Nortel’s units in the U.S., Europe and Canada.

Otelco Inc. plans to seek support for a pre-packaged chapter 11 filing from its senior subordinated notes holders in an effort to reduce its overall debt by roughly $135 million, MarketWatch.com reported today. The wireline telecommunication services provider said that it currently has more than $32 million in cash and sufficient liquidity to consummate the transaction. Otelco ended the third quarter with total liabilities of roughly $330.1 million. The company said that its senior lenders have agreed to amend and extend the company's current senior financing through April 2016.

Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross cleared the way for solar panel parts maker Satcon Technology Corp. to speed up its auction process by two weeks after the company failed to find a lead bidder to set a floor price for its assets, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. Satcon sought to move up the auction after it failed to convince any of the 13 potential bidders who signed confidentiality agreements to put in a lead bid several weeks before the auction.

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.

Creditors of bankrupt telecoms company Nortel Networks failed to reach a deal to split $9 billion among U.S., Canadian and European insolvency and bankruptcy proceedings, Reuters reported yesterday. The mediator, Warren Winkler, the Chief Justice of Ontario, said in a brief statement that he concluded further efforts at mediation are no longer worthwhile. Retirees in Canada and the United Kingdom have been fighting for a larger portion of the cash against the company's bondholders.

Video game publisher THQ that only five years ago had a market value of more than $2 billion sold most of its assets at a bankruptcy auction that closed on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. Games in development and production studios owned by the Agoura Hills, Calif.-based company were bought by a variety of competitors for a total of $72 million, according to court documents. That exceeded a stalking-horse bid THQ had from private investment firm Clearlake Capital Group, which offered to take the entire company private for $60 million.

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.

Atari SA's U.S.-based video-game-making businesses filed for chapter protection with the intention of separating from the unprofitable French parent and seeking independent funding, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. New York-based Atari Inc., maker of video games “Pong” and “Asteroids,” as well as affiliates Atari Interactive Inc., Humongous Inc. and California U.S. Holdings Inc., asked to be jointly administered in filings today in bankruptcy court. Atari was founded in 1972 and became a pioneer in arcade and video games. Today it lags behind game-making giants such as Activision Blizzard Inc., the world’s largest by sales, and Electronic Arts Inc. The move to separate the U.S. business comes after the parent company Atari said in December it was strained for cash. The French parent, which has not made a profit since 1999 despite asset sales and restructuring, forecast a “significant loss” in 2012-2013, and said it would weigh all means of raising cash and had been talking to potential investors. According to its chapter 11 petition, Atari owes $10 million to $50 million to at least 200 creditors and possibly as many as 999. It reported assets of $1 million to $10 million.

Renewable-energy company Satcon Technology Corp. wants to get its bankruptcy sale process officially under way, though it has not yet lined up a lead bidder for its assets, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. The Boston-based company, which provides solar-power systems to large-scale commercial businesses, yesterday filed the rules it would like to govern its chapter 11 auction. It wants the contest for its assets to take place on Feb. 19 at the offices of law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP in Wilmington, Del., with a proposed sale hearing to follow on Feb. 21.

Elpida Memory Inc. won bankruptcy court approval for technology deals over the objections of U.S. bondholders, who argued the agreements were an attempt to bind the bankrupt chipmaker to a proposed $2.5 billion sale to Micron Technology Inc., Reuters reported yesterday. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Sontchi said that he found no evidence of collusion or improper motives yesterday in Elpida's technology licensing deals with Micron and a $15 million patent sale to Rambus Inc. U.S. bondholders opposed the deals because they said that they would effectively tie Elpida to its proposed sale and were unfairly beneficial to Micron. Elpida said that it would be able to immediately begin improving its operations thanks to the licensing agreements with Micron.