Fulfilling the terms of an agreement reached with bondholders in February, Charter Communications submitted a petition for Chapter 11 protection last Friday to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The bankruptcy petition would restructure a portion of the debt owed by St. Louis-based Charter, the nation’s fourth largest cable operator with more than 5.5 million subscribers. At the end of last year, Charter listed total debt obligations of $21.7 billion with annual interest costs approaching $2 billion.
When an insurance company becomes insolvent, one key issue is the extent to which the insurer's liquidator may recover prior payments made by the insurer. On February 23, 2009, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a significant decision limiting such recoveries. The court held that payments made by a failed Pennsylvania insurance company in the ordinary course of business are not recoverable by the statutory liquidator of the insolvent insurer.
On February 23, 2009, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a decision finding that payments made by a failed Pennsylvania insurance company in the ordinary course of business are not recoverable by the statutory liquidator of the insolvent insurer because the payments were not on account of an "antecedent debt" as that term is used in the voidable preference provision of Pennsylvania's Insurance Act.
Nortel Networks Corp. of Canada, one of the world’s leading suppliers of fixed line phone network equipment, filed for protection from creditors Wednesday under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. A pioneer in the development of network switches, routers, and fiber-optic technologies used by many of the world’s top telecommunications carriers, Nortel ranked as Canada’s largest company by value at the height of the global telecom market boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
*As seen on Bankruptcy Law360.
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.
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.
October 17, 2008 marked the third anniversary of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 ("BAPCPA"). This sweeping bankruptcy reform was designed to eliminate bankruptcy as an option for many would-be filers. While there is no doubt BAPCPA impacted bankruptcy filings both nationally and in West Virginia, recent trends suggest filings are on the rise and could reach pre-BAPCPA levels in the foreseeable future.
The 2005 Boom
Recent Developments in the Zone of Insolvency