LightSquared said it will seek to auction its assets without a lead bidder in place, setting up possible competition for a bid by Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network.
In a Tuesday filing with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, LightSquared spelled out the procedures for an auction of its wireless spectrum assets, for which an entity controlled by Douglas County-based Dish has already bid $2.2 billion. The Dish bid and an accompanying auction are the backbone of a reorganization plan filed by a group of LightSquared’s lenders, but the company wants to conduct the auction itself.
“Key constituents in each of LightSquared’s estates have expressed their belief that LightSquared should control the sale process — and not a self-interested creditor,” LightSquared lawyers said in their filing. A lawyer for the ad-hoc group of hedge funds that proposed the Dish-led auction didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
LightSquared, which is controlled by Phil Falcone and his Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund firm, hasn’t embraced the Dish bid.
