Blockbuster Inc.'s Canadian subsidiary on Thursday got a 14-day extension to keep using the Blockbuster name through the middle of July, as the video-rental company sorts out issues on both sides of the border, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Without the agreement, Blockbuster Canada would have been forced by new Blockbuster owner Dish Network Corp. to stop using the Blockbuster name on June 30. After about two hours privately meeting with Judge Burton R. Lifland of the U.S.
Read more
Judges in the U.S. and Canada have pushed Nortel Networks Corp.'s warring units back into mediation, urging them to reach a deal over how to divide some $4 billion raised in the telecommunications company's global liquidation, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. The prospect that Nortel's creditors around the world could wait a long time to find out how much of the cash they will get is "troublesome," Judge Kevin Gross of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., wrote. The wait is due to a dispute over whether Nortel should divide the cash in court, as Nortel U.S.
Read more
Try to talk about Mexican restructuring law for 15 seconds without saying the word Vitro. You can’t! And neither could the four participants in a New York panel discussion Monday on Mexico’s 11-year-old equivalent of a bankruptcy code, called Ley de Co Concurso Mercantiles, the Bankruptcy Beat blog reported. The panelists seem to agree that the prepackaged plan being pushed by Mexico’s largest glassmaker is the biggest challenge yet to the viability of Concurso. Vitro SAB and its bondholders have been fighting for months in both the U.S.
Read more
US car giant General Motors appears to be ready to sell its subsiary Opel once again, amid continuing losses at the German firm, SPIEGEL reported. When GM abandoned an effort to sell the firm, the decision caused deep-seated tensions between the American company and the government in Berlin. In 2009, United States car manufacturer General Motors put its German subsidiary Opel up for sale, because GM itself was faced with bankruptcy.
Read more
Telecommunications-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp., in the process of liquidating its assets, has asked that an official retiree committee be named to negotiate over ending or modifying health-care benefits the company attempted to cut off last year, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a filing Thursday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Canada-based Nortel said it had spent $19 million on U.S. retiree and disability benefits since being thwarted by a July 2010 appeals court decision that said companies must talk to retirees before terminating their benefits.
Read more
Dish Network Corp. is threatening Blockbuster Canada with the loss of its use of the Blockbuster logo, as part of a strategy to acquire its assets, Blockbuster Canada Co. said, Bloomberg reported. Blockbuster’s U.S. business, acquired by Dish, has asked for bankruptcy court permission to end an agreement with the Canadian unit over trademarks, Grant Thornton Ltd., a receiver for the Canadian assets said in court papers filed in Manhattan court today.
Read more
The US Justice Department sued German giant Deutsche Bank Tuesday for more than $1 billion for mortgage fraud, saying the bank illegally obtained government insurance for substandard mortgages during the US housing boom, Agence France-Presse reported. Deutsche Bank and its subsidiary MortgageIT "repeatedly lied to be included in a government program to select mortgages for insurance by the government," the Justice Department complaint said.
Read more
Nortel Networks Corp. said Monday it has received court approval for a $900-million "stalking horse" bid by Google for the company's remaining patents and patent applications, the Winnipeg Free Press reported on a Canadian Press story. Qualified bidders hoping to top the Google offer will be required to submit offers by June 13, while the auction is set for June 20. The winning bid will require approval by the U.S. and Canadian courts overseeing the sale process.
Read more
A fund controlled by billionaire investor Len Blavatnik has been asked to return EUR100 million ($145.8 million) to the bankruptcy estate of chemical giant LyondellBasell Industries, which emerged from Chapter 11 protection last year but left a trustee to file lawsuits to recover funds for the company's unsecured creditors, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. In a lawsuit filed Friday with the U.S.
Read more
Quebec-based forestry company Tembec Inc. is liquidating its U.S. subsidiary, nearly four years after shuttering its Louisiana coated paper mill, The Canadian Press reported. Tembec USA, a division of the company that no longer has any operating assets, has applied to a U.S. bankruptcy court for Chapter 7 protection, Tembec announced Monday. Unlike Chapter 11, this section is designed for companies seeking liquidation rather than restructuring. Tembec said its U.S. division has US$81 million in debt and assets worth $1 million.
Read more