06-18-2003, 05:46 PM
Just a heads up to the two or three of you who still watch wrestling, and might care.
Yesterday afternoon, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order approving the sale of substantially all ECW assets to WWE.
The hold-up in approval of the sale had been a late entry into the proceedings by Delta Music and Powersports, two companies that had a license agreement with ECW to distribute footage (some or all of it, at least all of the TV), specifically in the United Kingdom, and surrounding areas.
Delta and Powersports settled their claims with the Trustee and WWE and a stipulation as to their settlement was filed yesterday as well. Technically the sale order approval is not final until the Court also approves the settlement, but that should be done shortly since everyone has signed off on the settlement stipulation.
On April 4, 2003 the hearing on the Trustee's motion to approve the sale was heard. Delta Music and Powersports had objected just a few days prior to the hearing on the grounds they recieved no timely notice. The Court agreed with them and allowed them time to file a brief of their position, which they did. The parties were also encouraged (rather strongly because the judge didn't want to have to try this matter that was so close to being settled) to explore settlement.
Upon closing of the ECW sale to WWE, Delta and Powersports will receive $165,000.00 from the Trustee and/or WWE. The language is unclear as in one part of the stipulation it says "from the Trustee", but "WWE's share" of that amount is referred to later. The $165K is split to two different amounts between Delta and Powersports since they are two different entities even though they can pretty much be handled together for our intents and purposes.
The $165,000 is to be made in three installments of $55,000.00. The first to come straight to Delta from the $2,000,000.00 the Trustee will have on hand at the closing of the sale to WWE, thus making the amount on hand $1,945,000.00 instantly.
The second $55,000 installment will come from WWE's distribution from the Trustee on their claim. The third $55K installment goes to Delta/Powersports from the Trustee's account. The difference between the first and third installment is just a technical one, Delta/Powersports gets the 1st $55K directly from the closing proceeds. The 3rd comes from the Trustee's account after everything from the sale has gone through.
WWE also must pay an additional $30,000 to Delta/Powersports. In return, Delta/Powersports will ship to WWE approximately 500 hours of ECW master tapes it has in its possession. There had been talk several months ago about missing ECW masters, I wonder if this is them.
Delta also will be allowed to sell the inventory of ECW tapes/DVD's it already has for 90 days after it receives the "$70,000.00" it is owed by wire transfer. I think the $70,000 figure is a typo as that number doesn't work by any way I've looked at the settlement numbers. I don't know if they mean the $30,000 figure for the master tapes or the $165,000 settlement amount.
Either way, Delta has 90 days from some point where they are paid some amount to sell their inventory before they must stop. Again, if you are dying to get Tony Stetson ECW matches on DVD, do it in the next three months or you'll be SOL, and you know what that means.
Tod Gordon is mentioned as being specifically barred from any claim to the footage. The fraud portions relating to the "ECW Management Group" and pre-bankruptcy ECW legal counsel are still in the sale agreement. The Trustee still retains the claim against Joey Styles for allegedly diverting funds due to ECW from <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ecwwrestling.com">http://www.ecwwrestling.com</a><!-- w --> to himself.
Yesterday afternoon, the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York entered an order approving the sale of substantially all ECW assets to WWE.
The hold-up in approval of the sale had been a late entry into the proceedings by Delta Music and Powersports, two companies that had a license agreement with ECW to distribute footage (some or all of it, at least all of the TV), specifically in the United Kingdom, and surrounding areas.
Delta and Powersports settled their claims with the Trustee and WWE and a stipulation as to their settlement was filed yesterday as well. Technically the sale order approval is not final until the Court also approves the settlement, but that should be done shortly since everyone has signed off on the settlement stipulation.
On April 4, 2003 the hearing on the Trustee's motion to approve the sale was heard. Delta Music and Powersports had objected just a few days prior to the hearing on the grounds they recieved no timely notice. The Court agreed with them and allowed them time to file a brief of their position, which they did. The parties were also encouraged (rather strongly because the judge didn't want to have to try this matter that was so close to being settled) to explore settlement.
Upon closing of the ECW sale to WWE, Delta and Powersports will receive $165,000.00 from the Trustee and/or WWE. The language is unclear as in one part of the stipulation it says "from the Trustee", but "WWE's share" of that amount is referred to later. The $165K is split to two different amounts between Delta and Powersports since they are two different entities even though they can pretty much be handled together for our intents and purposes.
The $165,000 is to be made in three installments of $55,000.00. The first to come straight to Delta from the $2,000,000.00 the Trustee will have on hand at the closing of the sale to WWE, thus making the amount on hand $1,945,000.00 instantly.
The second $55,000 installment will come from WWE's distribution from the Trustee on their claim. The third $55K installment goes to Delta/Powersports from the Trustee's account. The difference between the first and third installment is just a technical one, Delta/Powersports gets the 1st $55K directly from the closing proceeds. The 3rd comes from the Trustee's account after everything from the sale has gone through.
WWE also must pay an additional $30,000 to Delta/Powersports. In return, Delta/Powersports will ship to WWE approximately 500 hours of ECW master tapes it has in its possession. There had been talk several months ago about missing ECW masters, I wonder if this is them.
Delta also will be allowed to sell the inventory of ECW tapes/DVD's it already has for 90 days after it receives the "$70,000.00" it is owed by wire transfer. I think the $70,000 figure is a typo as that number doesn't work by any way I've looked at the settlement numbers. I don't know if they mean the $30,000 figure for the master tapes or the $165,000 settlement amount.
Either way, Delta has 90 days from some point where they are paid some amount to sell their inventory before they must stop. Again, if you are dying to get Tony Stetson ECW matches on DVD, do it in the next three months or you'll be SOL, and you know what that means.
Tod Gordon is mentioned as being specifically barred from any claim to the footage. The fraud portions relating to the "ECW Management Group" and pre-bankruptcy ECW legal counsel are still in the sale agreement. The Trustee still retains the claim against Joey Styles for allegedly diverting funds due to ECW from <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ecwwrestling.com">http://www.ecwwrestling.com</a><!-- w --> to himself.