Daniel Kaplan says the hearing in the bankruptcy court where the Rangers are seeking approval of their pre-packaged bankruptcy plan has been moved back to July 22.
I think this is good news.
Let me preface this by saying, I haven't weighed in on the meaning of a lot of the legal issues because I'm not a bankruptcy lawyer. This is a specialized area of the law, and I'm not qualified to opine on that.
That said...
First, Judge Lynn made it pretty clear he thought the July 9 date was premature, and signalled pretty clearly that the Greenberg/Ryan group and MLB were hurting their chances of getting what they wanted by pushing the date forward. I wouldn't be shocked if this rescheduling was the result of the buyers and MLB backing off that earlier request.
Secondly, as we talked about earlier, the CRO has recommended that there be an auction for the Rangers, and the bidding on the auction is set for July 16.
By scheduling the hearing after the auction, the judge doesn't have to deal with speculative higher bidders or conceptual alternatives. There will be an auction, the competing bids will be out there, MLB will have a chance to evaluate them and weigh in on whether or not they'd be approved, and the judge can rule accordingly.
To me, this makes it a lot more likely that Judge Lynn approves the pre-packaged plan. He's going to be in a position where he can tell the creditors, we did what you wanted, we opened things up for re-bidding, and I as the judge still think that the Greenberg/Ryan group's bid is acceptable, or superior to the alternative bids. The creditors aren't going to be in a position to complain that there was a superior bid out there if the bidding process takes place, and the judge says, all factors considered, the competing bid doesn't trump the Greenberg/Ryan bid.
Thus, I think this sets up well for the Rangers. My optimism about the prepackaged deal being approved is a lot higher now than it was at the beginning of the day.