Aloha set to auction trademarks
By Erik Larson
Bloomberg News Service
NEW YORK — Aloha Airlines Inc., the Hawai'i carrier liquidating in its second bankruptcy in three years, won court approval to auction intellectual property for at least $525,000 to bidders including private-equity firm Yucaipa Cos.
The Dec. 2 auction, which includes dozens of trademarks, nine Internet domain names and three designs for painting aircraft exteriors, was approved yesterday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Lloyd King.
Yucaipa, the so-called stalking-horse bidder led by billionaire investor Ron Burkle, is Aloha's majority investor and second-lien creditor. The Los Angeles-based firm agreed to pay $25,000 cash and reduce its claims in the case by $500,000.
Competing bids in $50,000 increments must be received by Nov. 26, according to the ruling. King scheduled a Dec. 3 hearing to consider approval of the auction results. The court order didn't reference any known competing bidders.
King in June approved Yucaipa's offer to buy Aloha's stake in a lawsuit against Mesa Air Group Inc. for $10 million. The 2007 case accused Phoenix-based Mesa of misusing Aloha's confidential passenger and pricing data to create a competing Hawai'i carrier named go!
Aloha in May won court approval to sell its profitable cargo unit to Seattle-based shipping firm Saltchuk Resources Inc. for $10.5 million.
Aloha stopped passenger flights 10 days after its March 30 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The company blamed its collapse on rising fuel costs and a passenger-fare price war triggered by Mesa's competing airline. The reorganization case was later converted to Chapter 7 liquidation.