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.

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.

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.

In a recent decision1 in a claims objection proceeding in the Solutia chapter 11 case, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York set clear limits on the allowance of secured claims.

In a closely watched case against Motorola, Inc. arising out of the Iridium chapter 11 case, Judge James M. Peck of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has adopted a market approach to determining prepetition solvency, finding “insufficient cause to set aside the verdict of solvency and capital adequacy already given to Iridium by the public markets.” In his 111-page opinion1 Judge Peck agreed with the Third Circuit’s approach in VFB LLC v.