LightSquared founder Phillip Falcone said he may consider voluntary bankruptcy for his troubled wireless broadband venture, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. “There are arguments that we would be better off in bankruptcy than not,” Falcone said. “LightSquared, if I have to, I’ll put it into bankruptcy. I don’t care,” adding that he would maintain control of the company if it were to file. LightSquared planned to build a high-speed data network that would cover as many as 260 millio...

Shares of Sprint stock fell 4.5% Monday morning after an analyst said there is an increasing risk that the nation’s third largest wireless carrier could file for bankruptcy. The company is facing increased competition, growing debt and steep costs, with flops in Clearwire’s WiMAX technology, a failed LightSquared partnership and a risky $15.5 billion gamble on Apple’s iPhone further complicating its position. Read on for more. (more…)

Kodak said it will stop making digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frames in order to focus on more profitable products, reports the Associated Press. The move isn’t surprising, as the company is slowly emerging from last month’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. “Our goal is to maximize value for stakeholders, including our employees, retirees, creditors, and pension trustees,” Kodak said in a press release. The company’s digital camera and picture frame product...

Kodak and its U.S. subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday. The petition was filed in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. During the bankruptcy, Kodak hopes to bolster liquidity in the U.S. and abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual property, resolve legacy liabilities and focus on its most valuable business lines. ”Our goal is to maximize value for stakeholders, including our employees, retirees, creditors, and pension trustees,̶...

Eastman Kodak could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month or in early February according to a recent report. The troubled camera maker will likely file if it cannot sell 1,100 patents, The Wall Street Journal said Wednesday. The company is reportedly speaking with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup and Wells Fargo, and is asking for as much as $1 billion in debtor-in possession financing. The financing could help keep Kodak alive as it moves through the bankruptcy filing process. If Kodak...

A bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved Dish Network’s winning bid and gave it the OK to acquire Blockbuster for $320 million. Dish’s bid topped other bidders including Cobalt Video, a group of hedge funds lead by Monarch Alternative Capital, and billionaire investor Carl Icahn earlier this week at an auction for Blockbuster’s business and assets. New York Judge Burton Lifland gave his approval in bankruptcy court, and Dish will now assume control of 1,700 remaining Blockbuster locations, ...

The business of smartphone production is starting to look more like the a John Grisham legal novel. While handset makers try to out-innovate each other with high-end, spec-heavy handsets consumers will flock to, lawyers are trying to out-flank each other with patent suits and red-tape. No longer can you have an armada of talented engineers and a driven executive team, you also must possess a war chest of hardware and software patents to prevent your company from entering litigation limbo — just Google t...

The fate of Blockbuster is now up for auction. On Monday Blockbuster’s next owner, and future, will be decided. According to Reuters, it’s possible that a new owner could close the video rental chain, liquidate it entirely, or continue operations in a bid to compete with the likes of Netflix and the growing number of online media streaming services. Reportedly, Dish Network Corp. and Carl Icahn have already placed bids for the company, and SK Telecom is also interested. Monarch Alternative Capital...

Via a press release, Blockbuster has announced a “pre-arranged” bankruptcy in order to “recapitalize” and “substantially reduce its indebtedness.” The Chapter 11 filing will take the embattled company’s debt from roughly $1 billion down to $100 million; the filing is for the company’s U.S. branches only. “Blockbuster franchise locations in both the U.S. and abroad are independently owned, operated and funded, and are also continuing normal business ope...

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the once mighty Blockbuster will file for bankruptcy as early as next month. The Times quotes anonymous sources “familiar with the matter” in the report and explains that the filing could take five months and see 500 to 800 retail outlets closed. The company is seeking protection under Chapter 11 in order to restructure their current debt-load of roughly $1 billion (that’s billion with a “b”). The bankruptcy is being described as pre-p...

Blockbuster continues its downward spiral as it has been suspended from trading and forced to delist from the NYSE effective next Wednesday. Currently trading at $0.18 per share, Blockbuster failed to win majority stockholder approval last week for a reverse stock split that would have brought its stock above the $1 threshold and back in compliance with the NYSE. In a move that delays any immediate bankruptcy proceedings, Blockbuster was given a one-month reprieve on debt payments that the movie rental giant ...

Canada-based Nortel, once North America’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer, filed for bankruptcy in January 2009 after a turnaround effort failed. As part of its bankruptcy proceedings, Nortel will sell its LTE and CDMA assets to Nokia Siemens for a cool $650 million. The acquisition will improve Nokia Siemen’s position in both North America and the growing LTE business. The acquisition is subject to approval from both the US bankruptcy court and the Ontario Superior Court of Just...

D-Day has arrived for the struggling satellite radio provider and for the time being, all is not lost. Liberty Media has indeed swooped in and pumped $530 million into Sirius XM in order to prevent the company from defaulting on $175 million in debt owed to Echostar today. Echostar’s Charlie Ergen had offered to take control of the company in an effort to “help” it avoid bankruptcy but the Sirius XM board seemingly wouldn’t even consider Ergen’s offer as a possibility. Instead, S...

This past week we gave you a brief glimpse into the nightmare that Sirius XM’s business has become and since then things have basically been a cluster… err, mess. Sirius did take a big step in restructuring some of its future debts – $172.5 million that was due in December is now due in June 2011, a move that cost the company 60 million shares of stock. Forget the fact that Sirius XM has $227.5 million of December debt remaining, it also still has $175 million that comes due to Dr. Claw Char...