Extending credit to risky customers in the automotive industry has increasingly required active and careful management of the prospective sale and the account receivable to assure payment. The news of GM’s, Ford’s and Chrysler’s financial condition, and any likely affect of their bankruptcy on its suppliers, has changed the definition of “credit risk” to include otherwise traditionally “credit-worthy” customers that operate in financially-uncertain industries.

Buckling under roughly $13 billion in debt, broadcast and print media giant Tribune sought protection from creditors with the filing of a Chapter 11 petition in a Delaware bankruptcy court on Monday. Based in Chicago, the Tribune Company owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, and ten other newspaper properties scattered across the nation’s largest media markets. The company also owns 23 broadcast television stations, cable TV super station WGN, major league baseball’s Chicago Cubs, and Wrigley Field.

As the Seventh Circuit has recently made clear in Airadigm Communications, Inc. v. FCC, bankruptcy courts have the discretion under Bankruptcy Code §524 to approve a release contained in a Plan of Reorganization of a party which did not seek bankruptcy protection. Such a non-debtor release is more likely to be approved by the bankruptcy court where the creditors do not object to the confirmation of the Plan or vote to approve the Plan.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware inElway Company, LLP v. Miller (In re Elrod Holdings Corp.), 2008 WL 4414315 (Bankr. D. Del. Sept. 30, 2008) recently held that transfers in payment of a private stock sale to insiders constituted “settlement payments” under section 546(e) of the Bankruptcy Code and were therefore immune from avoidance as constructively fraudulent transfers by the chapter 7 trustee.

WorldSpace, a key provider of satellite radio services to customers living in ten European, African and Asian nations, filed for Chapter 11 protection last Friday before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware, listing assets of $307.4 million against debts of $2.12 billion.

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (“LBHI”) filed for protection under chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in New York. The case bears the caption In re Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Case No. 08-13555, and has been assigned to Judge James M. Peck. Notably, the only Lehman entity thus far to file for chapter 11 protection is LBHI; neither the main “broker dealer” (Lehman Brothers, Inc.) nor other subsidiaries of Lehman filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection. However, Lehman Brothers Japan Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Japan Inc.

Resolving a split among various circuits, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that the exemption from state stamp taxes under section 1146(a) of the Bankruptcy Code does not apply to asset sales under section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code that took place before confirmation of a debtor’s chapter 11 plan—an event that may take months or years to accomplish.1

In a recent decision,1 Judge Sweet of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York affirmed a bankruptcy court decision and refused to recognize under chapter 15 of the Bankruptcy Code either as “foreign main proceedings” or as “foreign nonmain proceedings” the well-publicized liquidations brought in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands by two Bear Stearns hedge funds (the “Funds”).

If you thought, like many, that the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Trenwick Am. Litig. Trust v. Billet, 2007 Del. LEXIS 357 (Del. 2007), put the theory of “deepening insolvency” to rest, once and for all, well, think again. A recent decision, George L. Miller v. McCown De Leeuw & Co. (In re The Brown Schools), 2008 Bankr. LEXIS 1226 (Bankr. D. Del. April 24, 2008), from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware shows that “deepening insolvency” endures, albeit in reduced form.

On Friday, February 1, 2008, Plastech Engineered Products, Inc. and certain of its affiliated companies (collectively, “Plastech”) filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in Detroit, Michigan. None of Plastech's foreign incorporated affiliates are included in this bankruptcy petition and as such, any transaction with such affiliates should continue in the normal course.