Eastman Kodak is attempting to draw its bankruptcy saga to a close. A deal has reportedly been reached with bondholders for $793 million in loans and other debts that could conceivably extract it from bankruptcy proceedings. A key point to the deal is Kodak being required to sell its digital photography patent portfolio for at least $500 million.
Manhattan District Court Judge George Daniels has rejected Apple's bid to have its patent dispute with Kodak moved out of bankruptcy court and into district court. The move would have complicated Kodak's plan to sell its potentially lucrative patent portfolio in a sealed-bid process later this year. Kodak is attempting to auction off some 700 digital-capture patents, which have generated more than $3 billion in revenues since the turn of the century.
In the latest maneuver during a legal battle with EMI that began in 2007, MP3Tunes has filed for bankruptcy. The move puts the ongoing case on hold, and could prevent a judgement in the matter. EMI isn't abandoning the suit, and as the CEO of MP3Tunes is a co-defendant in the case, he is personally facing liability for the alleged infringements.
Troubled LTE telecom company LightSquared may default on a $1.6 billion loan and reported a net loss of $427 million for the first three quarters of 2011, forcing founder Philip Falcone to consider a "voluntary bankruptcy" to stave off creditors, Reuters reports. The move would buy time for Falcone and his hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners to find ways to salvage the company, which has hit government resistance to its plan to create a satellite "4G" network.
Ultimate Electronics, a consumer technology chain that shuttered its stores and went out of business in April, is in court trying to recover money it paid Apple for products it received and re-sold -- a technique known as "preferential transfers" that could see the defunct chain recover as much as $420,000 from Apple, AppleInsider reports. It is normally used only to try and recover the last payments a company sent its suppliers.
