Judge Says Dish Properly Withdrew LightSquared Bid

Judge Shelley Chapman of US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan said Dish Network properly withdrew its $2.2 billion bid for LightSquared's wireless-spectrum assets, rejecting an argument by LightSquared's lenders that Dish was still required to close the deal.

Judge Chapman said that while Dish never officially filed paperwork withdrawing the offer, its termination of an agreement with those lenders based on the bid was sufficient. The judge told Dish lawyer Rachel Strickland that she should have made a filing notifying the lenders that the offer itself was off the table, not just the agreement. The lenders, a group of hedge funds that had presented a restructuring plan for LightSquared based on the Dish bid, argued that the absence of an official withdrawal of the bid binds Dish to the deal. White & Case LLP's Thomas E. Lauria, a lawyer for the hedge funds, said it was "incomprehensible" that Dish was walking away.