Distressed M&A

A World Series as exciting as any in memory ended two weeks ago. Notwithstanding the end of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ chapter 11 case offered the promise of more baseball-related thrills. Dodger’s owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball (“MLB”) Commissioner Bud Selig appeared headed towards an epic courtroom showdown that promised to rival

Critics of last year’s decision on credit bidding by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the Philadelphia Newspapers chapter 11 case welcomed the Seventh Circuit’s recent unanimous opinion in River Road Hotel Partners LLC. The Seventh Circuit expressly adopted the Judge Tom

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has taken under advisement the latest case involving the now contentious issue of credit bidding. 

Bankruptcy lawyers who are regularly involved in distressed m&a deals have been wondering for the past few months about the potential fallout from Philadelphia Newspapers. In that case, as previously described on this site, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the debtor's efforts to deny its secured lenders the right to credit bid in connection with an auction held under a non-consensual plan of reorganization pursuant to Section 1129(b)(2)(A) of the Bankruptcy Code. The majority opin

Tom Hicks spent months trying to push through a sale of the Texas Rangers over the strong objections of his bank lenders, who believed that the proposed deal substantially undervalued the team.