|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Party City Requests Executive Security; New York Battery Maker Fails; 23andMe Mulls Sale
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Wednesday, January 29. In today's briefing, Party City cited the recent killing of UnitedHealthCare's CEO in requesting security in response to threats. A New York maker of lithium-ion batteries became the third such company to file for bankruptcy recently. And 23andMe is considering its options.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo: H. Rick Bamman/Zuma Press
|
|
|
|
|
|
Party City seeks security protection in response to threats. Party City is looking to hire security personnel to protect its executives in response to "specific threats" and the recent killing of UnitedHealthcare's chief executive officer.
The bankrupt retailer said in a Tuesday filing that executives have received threats over the company’s sudden shutdown in December. The company cited the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson and the public reaction that followed.
After Party City filed for chapter 11 on Dec. 21, 2024, it announced that all 692 of its stores would close during the bankruptcy process. Since then, the company’s executives have faced public “vitriol” over the impact of its bankruptcy on employees, particularly because it filed just before Christmas.
Party City’s current and former management received online threats that the company deemed were “real and material," and "specific" in nature. To protect against these threats, the company asked Houston bankruptcy judge Alfredo Perez to approve up to $400,000 for personal security and protection services for current and former employees. — Alicia McElhaney
|
|
|
|
|
New York battery startup files for bankruptcy. Lithium-battery startup iM3NY has filed for bankruptcy with $136 million in debt, saying it has no cash to fix technical and production problems that have plagued a facility it opened in 2022 in its headquarters city of Endicott, N.Y.
The company, which is majority owned by listed Australian company Magnis Energy Technologies, sought protection from creditors Monday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. iM3NY enters chapter 11 owing $126 million to HSBC Bank, which took over the secured loan in October and which is offering to provide up to $2.5 million in new financing for the bankruptcy process.
IM3NY is at least the third battery business to file for chapter 11 within the past year, with others including Sweden’s Northvolt and Bill Gates-backed Ambri. It hopes to soon begin selling its lithium-ion batteries on the market and will continue to look for a buyer for its business during the bankruptcy. — Becky Yerak
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo: Getty Images
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo: Mark Hertzberg/Zuma Press
|
|
|
|
|
|
DeepSeek is upending Wall Street's big AI power trade. The emergence of Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek has Wall Street reconsidering one of the hottest trades of the past year: providing the energy to power the artificial-intelligence boom.
The massive data centers that supply the computing behind AI are notorious electricity hogs, with power requirements that rival those of the largest American cities. Investors, including some of the biggest hedge-fund firms, have bid up shares of businesses expected to benefit from rising electricity demand and spending on energy infrastructure.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Photo: Josh Reynolds/AP
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kohl's cuts corporate workforce. The retailer is cutting roughly 10% of its corporate workforce, two weeks after installing a new chief executive. The company has also been struggling after management missteps. It scaled back fine jewelry, petite clothing sizes and popular private-label brands to make way for Sephora cosmetics and Babies “R” Us shops inside its stores, while also reducing inventory. The moves upset some longtime customers and sent Kohl’s sales into a nosedive that wiped out more than half a billion dollars in revenue over two years.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
