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AMF Bowling Worldwide Inc., the world's largest bowling operator, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure its mounting debt. The Hanover County-based company said this morning that it filed a pre-arranged petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond. AMF said it expects completing the restructuring process and exiting Chapter 11 within five months. AMF operates a location in Lynchburg near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Candlers Mountain Road, near James T. Davis Paint Center. The company said it will continue its normal business operations during the Chapter 11 process, and its bowling centers will maintain normal operating...

A top official at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) told a Republican congressman that the agency is still considering ways to save LightSquared's plan for a high-speed wireless network. The company invested billions of dollars in plans for a nationwide 4G network, but the FCC moved to block the network earlier this year over concerns it would interfere with GPS devices. In a letter sent last month that was obtained by The Hill, Mindel De La Torre, the chief of the FCC's International Bureau, told Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) the agency is "continuing to consider all options for addressing this...

Hostess Brands Inc. is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter, a move that would mark the second significant court restructuring for the Twinkies and Wonder Bread baker in the past several years. The privately held Irving, Texas, company, which employs roughly 19,000 people and carries more than $860 million in debt, has been facing a cash squeeze amid high labor costs and rising prices for sugar, flour and other ingredients, according to people familiar with the matter. Those costs together have proved higher than the company's roughly...

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines' parent company is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it seeks to unload massive debt built up by years of accelerating jet fuel prices and labor struggles. The nation's third largest airline also said its CEO Gerard Arpey will step down. He's being replaced by Thomas Horton, currently the company's president....

FORT WORTH, Texas – American Airlines and American Eagle's parent companies are filing for bankruptcy protection. AMR Corp. and AMR Eagle Holding Corp. said Tuesday that they filed voluntary petitions to reorganize, saying it's in the best interest of the companies and its shareholders.

American Airlines' parent company, AMR Corp., announced Tuesday that it has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. The decision comes as the airline tries to "achieve a cost and debt structure that is industry competitive and thereby assure its long-term viability and ability to continue delivering a world-class travel experience for its customers," the company said in a statement Tuesday.

SAN JOSE (CBS 5 / AP) ― The holding company for newspaper publisher MediaNews Group filed for Chapter 11 protection Friday and expects to emerge from bankruptcy in a month or two. Affiliated Media Inc., the privately held parent company for the owner of 54 daily newspapers including the San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times and Marin Independent Journal, had said Jan. 15 it would be making the move. The company said it had a deal with creditors that will cut its debt to $165 million from $930 million. Lenders led by Bank of America would get...

Owner of Denver Post, Salt Lake Tribune plans prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Affiliated Media Inc., the holding company for the MediaNews Group family of newspapers that includes The Denver Post, said Friday that it plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said it would file a "prepackaged" plan already approved by lenders, which should allow it to emerge from bankruptcy more quickly. Under the plan, company debt would fall from about $930 million to $165 million. Senior lenders would swap debt for stock. Earlier this week, Morris Publishing Group, owner of 13 daily newspapers including the...

Extended Stay Hotels has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, buckling under debt as its revenue dries up in the recession. The Spartanburg, S.C.-based company filed its Chapter 11 petition Monday in the Southern District of New York. Extended Stay - which operates under the brands of Extended Stay America, Crossland Economy Studios, Extended Stay Deluxe and Homestead Studio Suites — operates 15 hotels in the Orlando area. According to the filing, Extended Stay had about $7.1 billion in assets and $7.6 billion in liabilities at the end of 2008. Lakewood, N.J.-based Lightstone Group bought Extended Stay from Blackstone Group...

The buzz this week has been that Eddie Bauer Holdings is close to filing for bankruptcy if it can’t sell itself or restructure. Liquidation firms have reportedly been sizing up the apparel cataloger/retailer for weeks, including Hilco Consumer Capital and Gordon Brothers—the firms that bought Sharper Image out of bankruptcy in May 2008. Eddie Bauer, which recorded a net loss of $165.5 million for fiscal year 2008, said in March it has $193 million in outstanding debt, and that it was trying to amend the loan terms. The Bellevue, WA-based company generated $971.3 million in sales for fiscal 2008, down...

Debt-ridden amusement park operator Six Flags, controlled by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. The New York-based chain of parks has been trying unsuccessfully this year to renegotiate terms with lenders on hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Six Flags parks, including its Six Flags Great Escape and Indoor Water Park in Queensbury, will continue to operate as usual under reorganization. “The current management team inherited a $2.4 billion debt load that cannot be sustained, particularly in these challenging financial markets,” said Six Flags chief executive Mark Shapiro in a statement. “As a...

Breaking on CNBC: USSC delays Chyrsler asset sale! Mourdock: USe of Tarp Funds in automotive industry was illegal Obama admin had urged USSC NOT to keep chrysler deal on hold

DETROIT (WXYZ) - General Motors has begun to prepare its employees for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Action News and WXYZ.com have obtained an internal memorandum that the company sent to employees. It details what would happen if the company does file the bankruptcy paperwork. It begins by warning employees that they will most likely learn about the bankruptcy filing through the media because the company cannot provide advance notice. However, the company says they will notify employees within several minutes of the court filing through normal channels. Employees are also told that if a bankruptcy filing does take...

Obama’s first 100 days have occasioned a number of dispiriting moments, but yesterday’s attack on Chrysler’s bondholders represented a new low. In a speech announcing the company’s bankruptcy filing, President Obama blasted “a group of investment firms and hedge funds [that] decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout.” That is nothing short of a lie. The consortium wasn’t holding out for a bailout. It was holding out for a bankruptcy. The administration tried desperately to keep Chrysler out of bankruptcy court; in the process, it demonstrated exactly why that institution is so valuable. Obama’s auto...

President Obama, in laying out the plan for Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday, showed no love for the hedge funds that, he said, tried to hold out for a bigger payoff in the government's rescue of the ailing automaker. The hedge funds, which hold some of the company's debt, had refused to accept the government's offer of about 29 cents on the dollar for about $6.9 billion that Chrysler owed, and this reluctance forced the White House to push Chrysler toward bankruptcy in the hopes that a judge will allow Chrysler to shed this debt at prices even lower...

US ethanol producer Aventine said Wednesday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid poor margins and product oversupply. The Pekin, Illinois-based company warned last month it could go bankrupt and that it was in default on some fixed-rate notes. It has reached an agreement with note holders in order to stay in operation, Aventine said in a statement. Moody's Investors Service late Wednesday said it downgraded Aventine's corporate family rating to C from Ca and its probability of default rating to D from Ca after the bankruptcy filing. "The ratings will be withdrawn in the near future due...

Top General Motors Corp. executives are more open to a speedy bankruptcy reorganization financed by the government, pushing aside earlier concern that such a move would scare away so many customers the company wouldn't survive, said a person familiar with the matter. While the company still wants to avoid bankruptcy, the new view represents a reversal from GM's position late last year, when it sought a federal bailout. The change in thinking, combined with the disclosure Thursday that GM's auditor has raised "substantial doubt" about the car maker's ability to keep going, appears to move GM closer to the possibility...

General Motors on Thursday said that its auditors had expressed “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as a going concern, and that it might be forced to file for bankruptcy. America’s largest carmaker made the statement in a 10-K form filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, under a section on “risks related to us and our automotive business.” GM said the opinion from Deloitte & Touche, the auditing firm, “states that our recurring losses from operations, stockholders’ deficit and inability to generate sufficient cash flow to meet our obligations and sustain our operations raise substantial doubt about our...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) said on Thursday it will restructure its heavy debt load under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by April 1, wiping out shareholders as the company reached a deal with senior debt holders. The cable operator, controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, said in a statement it would file for Chapter 11 on or before April 1 after it reached a deal with some of its creditors helping to reduce its debt by around $8 billion. It had a debt load of around $21 billion as of Sept 30. Various debt holders and...

The word “bankrupt” originally came from Italy, deriving from banca rotta, or broken bench. When a medieval moneylender could not pay his debts, his bench was broken in two, sometimes over his head. Things are not quite so brutal these days, but European countries still deal with insolvent firms far more harshly than America does, and most such firms end up in liquidation. They often treat creditors badly too, meaning that neither side ends up satisfied. Observers worry that Europe will cope with the coming flood of defaults far less effectively than America, meaning a slower recovery. Standard & Poor’s...