Cyrus becomes Sears bankruptcy lender
Cyrus Capital Partners will provide Sears Holdings Corp. with a loan that will keep the bankrupt retailer's stores open after the hedge fund won a bidding war in a courthouse hallway, according to a lawyer for Sears.
Sears had previously struck a deal for a $350 million loan from specialty financing firm Great American Capital Partners that would have cost 11.5 percentage points over a benchmark lending rate, according to a previous court filing. But after some last-minute wrangling outside a courtroom in White Plains, N.Y., the company emerged with a new loan from Cyrus that will cut the company's borrowing costs by 1.5 percentage points, company lawyer Sunny Singh said at a hearing Tuesday.
Judge Robert Drain said he'll approve the so-called junior debtor-in-possession financing, which ranks below earlier funding that the retailer lined up for its Chapter 11 proceedings.
"We had bidding for the junior DIP literally outside in the hallway for the last hour," Singh told the judge.
The new debt further ties Cyrus, already a major Sears creditor, to the fate of the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retailer. Cyrus also won an auction for $251 million of internal Sears debt that gives the retailer an infusion of cash while also helping the hedge fund protect the value of derivatives wagers it made on Sears, a person with knowledge of that matter said earlier on Tuesday.
-- Bloomberg News
Data breach hits Atrium Health patients
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Personal information for more than 2.5 million Atrium Health patients may have been compromised in a data breach of billing information, including addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, the heath care giant said Tuesday.
A hacking affecting Atrium billing vendor AccuDoc may have affected as many as 2.65 million people, Charlotte-based Atrium said. Of those, about 700,000 patients may have had Social Security numbers compromised, according to Atrium.
Atrium Health, formerly Carolinas HealthCare System, operates 44 hospitals across North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Atrium is the largest health care provider and employer in Charlotte.
Compromised patient information also includes insurance policy information, medical record numbers, invoice numbers, account balances and dates of service, according to a joint news release from Atrium and AccuDoc. Atrium emphasized that the information was accessed but not downloaded.
Medical records were not accessed, Atrium said, and neither were bank account or debit and credit card numbers.
AccuDoc, a Raleigh-area company that prepares bills and operates the website where patients can make payments online, became aware that a cyber incident took place on Oct. 1, according to the release. An "unauthorized third party" accessed the patient information between Sept. 22 and 29, the release said.
Atrium Health and AccuDoc said they began notifying patients of the hacking on Tuesday, nearly two months after they became aware of the incident.
"These are complicated investigations," Atrium spokesman Chris Berger said Tuesday. "We've been working around the clock with AccuDoc, outside forensic investigators and the FBI to get to the bottom of this incident."
-- The Charlotte Observer (TNS)
University blocks Chick-fil-A as option
LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- Students at a private university in New Jersey can eat more chicken as long as it's not Chick-fil-A.
Rider University removed the restaurant from a survey asking students what restaurants they would like on campus, "based on the company's record widely perceived to be in opposition to the LGBTQ community." The fast-food chain was included in previous surveys.
Chick-fil-A says it has "no policy of discrimination against any group," and that its corporate purpose is "to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us."
Rider says it understands some may view the decision as a "form of exclusion." But the school says it wanted to be "faithful to our values of inclusion."
The university plans to hold a campus forum on the issue.
-- The Associated Press
China Communists to honor Alibaba's Ma
Jack Ma, co-founder of China's most valuable company, was officially confirmed as a member of the Communist Party in a state-backed newspaper recognizing business leaders for their contributions to the country's development.
Ma, co-founder and chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is one of 100 people the Communist Party of China's Central Committee will honor as part of a celebration marking 40 years since the country's economic overhaul and opening up. The honorees also include Tencent Holdings Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Pony Ma, Baidu Inc. CEO Robin Li, basketball star Yao Ming and volleyball coach Lang Ping.
The lines between business and politics have become increasingly hazy in China as President Xi Jinping has led a campaign to ensure the Communist Party plays a leading role across all aspects of society. That has at time created tensions when the interests of private business people and the state have conflicted.
The list of 100 people to be recognized on the 40th anniversary is being made public for review until Friday, according to the People's Daily newspaper. Beyond business leaders and sports stars, the list includes scientists, astronauts and artists.
-- Bloomberg News
Google closes $1B deal for business park
Alphabet Inc.'s Google has closed a $1 billion deal for a 51.8-acre business park next to its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. The purchase adds to a mammoth real estate expansion the company is undertaking in both California and New York City.
A Google spokesman confirmed the acquisition but declined to comment further. The business park covers a larger area than the company's existing headquarters, according to the San Jose Mercury News, which reported the deal earlier. It's the largest real estate purchase this year in Silicon Valley, where competition for offices among tech firms is fierce.
Google, a major landowner in Mountain View, has recently grabbed more office space in nearby Sunnyvale, where the company has placed its cloud-computing division. Google's plans for a $67 million land purchase in San Jose, where it wants to build a new development, are facing a legal backlash.
Earlier this year, Google purchased Manhattan's Chelsea Market for $2.4 billion to expand in New York.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 11/28/2018