LightSquared, Failed Wireless Venture, Files Bankruptcy

LightSquared filed for bankruptcy after its plan to deliver high-speed wireless to as many as 260 million people ran afoul of US regulators. LightSquared listed debt and assets of more than $1 billion each in a Chapter 11 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan.

The filing came after intense negotiations with creditors, who had requested that the company’s backer, Philip Falcone, step aside. Harbinger Capital Partners, Falcone’s New York-based hedge fund, had invested about $3 billion in LightSquared and owned about 74 percent of it as of Jan. 27. Falcone also had served on LightSquared’s board. Creditors asked for Falcone’s departure when they gave the company a weeklong extension on April 30 to stave off a default and keep trying to renegotiate its debt, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.