BankruptcyLawInsights

DeX Games – SuperMedia and Dex One File Simultaneous Chapter 11 Cases to Effect Merger

03/25/13

Distressed m&a is the “new normal” in Chapter 11 cases, as noted here and elsewhere. Two large media marketing and advertising companies, SuperMedia and Dex One, took the “new normal” to new extremes l

[more]

Too Cool for School Specialty - Alternative DIP Financing Allows Educational Company to Avoid Immediate Sale

03/04/13

The School Specialty chapter 11 case began in what has become all too typical fashion. The company, overleveraged and short of cash, had no choice but to accept a lifeline extended by its second lien secured lender, a private investment fund. The terms of the debtor in possession (“DIP”) financing

[more]

Too Cool for School Specialty – Alternative DIP Financing Allows Educational Company to Avoid Immediate Sale

03/04/13

The School Specialty chapter 11 case began in what has become all too typical fashion. The company, overleveraged and short of cash, had no choice but to accept a lifeline extended by its second lien secured lender, a private investment fund. The terms of the debtor in possession (“DIP”) financing required School Specialty to

[more]

Absolute Priority Rule Absolutism? Strict Interpretation of Bankruptcy Code Cramdown Provisions Nearly Causes Hawker Beechcraft Plan Confirmation to Skid Along the Runway

02/08/13

By nearly any measure, the Chapter 11 cases of Hawker Beechcraft and its affiliates (the “Debtors”) stand as a significant success. The cases began as a standalone reorganization predicated upon a restructuring support agreement (the “RSA”) among the Debtors’ senior lenders and noteholders, which soon thereafter gained the support o

[more]

Bip . . . Bip . . . Bip . . . "Pong" Creator Atari Files for Chapter 11

01/22/13

Atari, Inc., the creator of the primordial video game “Pong”, filed for Chapter 11 yesterday in the U.S.

[more]

Panic in Detroit? Motor City Moves Closer to Possible Chapter 9 Filing

12/13/12

Detroit has seen signs of revival in its urban core following the near-death experiences of GM and Chrysler. Unfortunately, its municipal finances remain beaten down by the city’s long and precipitous decline over the past several decades. Labor and legacy costs, incurred when the auto industry thrived and the population well exceeded a million citizens, are now heav

[more]

I Never Liked Twinkies

11/28/12

Sno-Balls, on the other hand, and virtually every type of Drakes confection – Yodels, Yankee Doodles, Devil Dogs – I enjoyed to excess at every opportunity. 

[more]

A Messy Break-Up But a Clean Divorce: Dewey LeBoeuf Avoids Litigation Morass of Most Law Firm Bankruptcy Cases

11/07/12

Large law firm failures typically produce lengthy and litigious bankruptcy cases. A frustrated lawyer in one such case succinctly described the essential problem: “the assets walk, talk and, worst of all, have their own counsel.” To the inherent tensions and creditor demands of any large chapter 11 case are added  the raw pain, similar to divorce, that many partners feel at the downfall of an institutio

[more]

We've Seen This Movie Before - The Return of Covenant Lite and PIK-Toggle Debt

10/16/12

Even as the financial crisis of 2008-09 began to ebb, the so-called “wall of debt” loomed large. Hundreds of billions of dollars of leveraged and high yield debt issued during the irrational exuberance era was coming due by 2014, threatening to drive up default rates and posing an ongoing threat to the health of the international financial markets. 

[more]