Movie critic Roger Ebert has posted this “most-hated movies” column on his website, and it’s an entertaining read. Inasmuch as I have been spared the chore of watching most of the films noted, it’s hard to argue with his choices. However, even though it has been overrated generally, isn’t it a bit harsh to include The Usual Suspects on this list?
The highly-publicized lawsuits by California-based utilities against Houston-based Reliant Energy Inc. over allegations that Reliant pumped up trade volumes and revenues during the 2000-01 energy crisis in Western states died with a whimper yesterday as Reliant agreed to pay $150 million cash and waive another $300 million in claims to settle the utilities’ lawsuits.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued this decision yesterday in connection with the Owen Cornings chapter 11 case in which it reversed a bankruptcy court decision that substantively consolidated Owens Corning and its numerous units as one entity for purposes of confirming the company’s reorganization plan.
Substantive consolidation in large reorganization cases is a favored tactic of tort claimants (it was favored by asbestos claimants in the Owens Corning case) and creditors of a company’s unprofitable units that allows those creditors to share in distributions generated from the company’s more profitable units. Lenders to those profitable units generally balk at substantive consolidation because it dilutes the dividend that they would otherwise receive on their claims against the profitable unit by allowing the claims against the unprofitable units to share in distributions from the profitable unit. In the Owens Corning case, the Third Circuit’s decision is a victory for a group of banks led by Credit Suisse Group’s Credit Suisse First Boston that has hundreds of millions of dollars riding on the separation of Owens Corning from its more profitable units.