Thread regarding Windstream Corp. layoffs

See other Judge Drain decisions. Yes I do blame him and the system as a whole. White collar crime still pays very well

I have been in telecom for 35yrs, and been thru 4 bankruptcies. Normally when a telco emerges from bankruptcy they still own their network. What Windstream has done is make it so they can break away from the TDM network and the several thousand employees that operate that portion of the business. Now Unity owns that portion of the network and can choose to simply shut it down and walk away. And this will happen later this year. Windstream employees will be looking for jobs as the economy is trying to recover from this pandemic, not a good time to be looking for a job.

@It ain't the judge's fault

You got it 1/2 right. This is how the bankruptcy laws are written, they are there to protect the business and not the employees. When this was announced back in February 2019 all of the politicians spoke up about layoffs and employee retention, we have heard nothing from them since that time.

We are a corporation and that protects the LR5 from having any personal responsibility for their actions. The judge approved the suggestions of the lawyers and consultants that were hired on behalf of WIN. We all know there have been poor decisions made over the past few years that have caused an issue with compounding debt and depreciated assets. If were were to take everything at face value the board would fire the LR5, hire consultants to save millions. Share holders would do the same to the board.

In the end we will never exit chapter 11 in August, we will be out of cash by then.
Friday's settlement with UNIT doesn't fix any of our financial or operations issues.
Depending on the losses announced this morning will be the tell tail sign of how much runway is left.

Phew, thank goodness WIN HR is here to tell everyone this is normal lol.

” And how did paying millions to the LR5 in bonuses help maximize the recovery your honor?”

The judge doesn’t care. If the creditors and the US Trustee agree on management pay, which they did after some negotiations, he’s not going to worry about what management’s getting. The presumption is that the creditors care enough to scrutinize this and ride herd on it. It’s their money. If you don’t like it, you can file a motion in the case.

This judge is overseeing multiple big corporate bankruptcies at once. He’s busy.

Everybody’s moving very fast and billions are at stake. I expect that when chapter 11 ends, creditors will finally take the time to sort out executive personnel and make wholesale changes. They’ve certainly seen this crew up close and personal.

Windstream is the largest SDWan provider in the country with a world class network. Investors are coming to the table because they see value in what the LR5 bring to the table. “#growthcompany”

And how did paying millions to the LR5 in bonuses help maximize the recovery your honor?

This is a very good article:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/judge-approves-windstreams-settlement-with-uniti-11588981548

It may or may not be behind a paywall when you click the link.

Be a nitwit and blame the judge all you want but this bankruptcy is following the basic logic of bankruptcy law.

The focus is not on how the company got there or who’s responsible. Take those questions to another court. This court is about maximizing recovery for all the folks owed money.

You make an effort to keep the business going based on the notion that it’s worth more alive than dead. (In other words, a working ILEC business is worth more than a bunch of obsolete equipment in liquidation).

The judge lets the various parties negotiate amongst themselves as much as possible to settle disputed issues like the Uniti lease. He intervenes when they can’t agree.

There’s only so much money to go around. Creditors that are secured (they’ve got collateral) get paid first out of what’s there.

Only after they get money does anyone else. In this case nobody.

Also, in the various disputes and negotiations, the more senior creditors have more of a vote than the junior creditors.

Even the people that are getting something are not getting checks. They’re getting bonds and new stock.

All this is accompanied by lots of unhappiness. Vulture investors like Elliott Management flock to the carcass.

1000s of employees lose their jobs. Fortunately in this case not everyone will.

This all s—s but it s—s less than if there wasn’t a structured process.

If you don’t like the way the law is written, get it changed.

Awful nice of the judge to weigh in here. But wait, he never says how much his take is on the deal!! I’ll bet he’s suddenly the proud owner of a new condo say somewhere on the French Riviera, loaded full of expensive booze...

I wouldn’t expect the #1 SD wan provider to need so much help emerging from bankruptcy.

Article:

https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/may/09/judge-oks-windstream-settlement-2020050/

Judge Drain is not "on the take".

All the parties got together. They squeezed as much $ as they could out of Uniti, which was a lot given that Uniti had a strong legal case. The problem for Uniti was that Windstream and its creditors had nothing to lose whereas Uniti had to worry that there was always a small chance they could lose in a trial. So Uniti settled. More likely, had the lease gone to trial, Uniti would've won and Windstream would have been stuck with nothing from them.

Management pay packages:
The creditors could have objected to these and probably won. They went along with them, though, because they didn't want to risk further chaos by losing the management team during all this. Folks here might think it would have been better to take that risk but to an outsider with less information, management probably just looked weak - not downright abysmal.

The money and value that's left in Windstream goes:

• 1st to the post-petition lenders and vendors that kept the company alive during all this. (Post-petition = folks who extended credit after bankruptcy started). All the lawyers and consultants, too. They'll all get cash. This included Citibank who extended the $1 billion loan to keep things going.

• 2nd to the senior secured creditors. They'll get a mix of new bonds and new stock. Right now, the value of all that is less than 100% of what they were owed.

• 3rd to the junior secured creditors (similar to a 2nd mortgage). There's not enough to even fully pay off the senior secureds so junior secureds get nothing.

• 4th to the unsecured creditors (including pre-bankruptcy vendors). Nothing - you'd have to fully pay off the people ahead in line.

• 5th - shareholders. Deep zero. The old stock will be cancelled.

This is standard bankruptcy. If it's unfair, unjust and bad, well, don't blame the judge – blame the people that got us to this point.

The Uniti deal is an improvement over the deal Windstream had before.

Yeah, Judge Drain was clearly bought and paid for. Investors shares just wiped away and windstream employees dealing with MASSIVE layoffs and furloughs while the execs rake in tens of millions in bonuses and all assets are moved to their shell company Unity so the execs can slide over and keep their gravy train moving. The LR5 are worth more than Windstream as a whole, let that sink in.......

Seriously, this couldn’t surprise anyone, right? A bought and paid for judge ruling in favor of his providers!! Now all those loser bond investors know where their money went. Way to go judge, teach the rest of these greedy narcissistic executives that ripping off others is punishable by wealth.