Legal confusion over WorldSpace satellites
Written by Chris Forrester
Sunday, 21 March 2010 04:45
WorldSpace has filed an emergency motion with the Delaware Bankruptcy Court to “de-orbit” its two satellites. Liberty Satellite Radio, in a matching filing, states bluntly that it has no intention of providing any more funds to WorldSpace. Liberty also adds that the two WorldSpace satellites “are not assets of [WorldSpace] and thus the request to de-orbit should be denied”.
In reality the two satellites, if de-orbited, will be sent up, not down, to a graveyard orbit safe from damaging other satellites. The bankruptcy court judge, Peter Walsh, will hear the application this coming Wednesday, March 24.
The WorldSpace filing asks the court to approve the plan to de-orbit AfriStar and AsiaStar, or permission to sell the assets. Liberty, in its filing, says any sale of assets by WorldSpace [“the debtor”] should not be approved “in a vacuum”. “If the debtor obtains a purchaser for their assets [then] the debtors should file an appropriate sale motion [to the court] and provide notice [to all interested parties].”
Liberty adds: “The satellites...are not assets of [WorldSpace] and are not subject to the jurisdiction of the court.”
Just for good measure Liberty then says that the WorldSpace motion contains “a number of inaccurate and misleading factual statements concerning, among other things, negotiations among Liberty, the Debtors and the Committee, and the status of the proposed transaction.”
That this whole process is odd is an understatement, but nothing that’s in any way associated with WorldSpace is anything less than odd. Judge Walsh will rule on Wednesday.
© Rapid TV News 2010
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