The struggling photography icon, which employs about 19,000 people, is in discussions with potential lenders for around $1 billion in so-called debtor-in possession financing that would keep it afloat during bankruptcy proceedings, the people said. A filing could occur as soon as this month or early February, one of the people said.

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The troubled Ann Arbor, Mich., bookseller could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy-protection as soon as Monday or Tuesday, paving the way for hundreds of store closings and thousands of job losses, said people familiar with the matter.

Borders’s finances crumbled amid declining interest in bricks-and-mortar booksellers, a broad cultural trend for which it offered no answers. The bookseller suffered a series of management gaffes, piled up unsustainable debts and failed to cultivate a meaningful presence on the Internet or in increasingly popular digital e-readers.

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Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that a Chapter 11 filing likely was imminent.

“Through the restructuring, TerreStar Networks hopes to lessen its debt obligations in order to place greater focus on delivering the future of ‘always available’ mobile communications through its recent launch of the world’s first integrated satellite-cellular smartphone,” the company said.

The company also said it signed an agreement to receive $75 million of debtor-in-possession financing with EchoStar, its largest secured creditor.

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Memo to all Cyborg Geeks:

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology….We can make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.”

Wait, that’s “The Six Million Dollar Man” motto!

But it might as well apply to the entertainment outfit that owns the “Terminator” movie franchise.

Today, according to blogger Nikke Finke of Deadline Hollywood, the Halcyon Holding Group, after recently filing for Chapter 11 protection, has hired FTI Capital Advisors “to evaluate strategic alternatives for the company.”

In other words: Selling off Skynet!

Halcyon, which made the most recent “Terminator Salvation” film and “owns the first-look rights to the works of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick,” has been fighting with a hedge fund that gave it money to buy the famous series that takes a very bleak view of the future.

Almost as bleak as that of Halcyon if it doesn’t come up with a plan to bring me my annual dose of cybernetic organisms, which is–of course!–living tissue over a metal endoskeleton.

It better be back.

Here’s the original trailer for the very first “Terminator” movie, which pretty much rocks:

Also: Debtor is suffering under mounting legal costs as it is steadily beaten into submission by Apple (AAPL) and its notoriously vicious legal team.

Pystar’s bankruptcy declaration will delay Apple’s copyright-infringement suit against it, but only temporarily. In the meantime, the company will be allowed to continue to do business and perhaps, strengthen its defense. But on June 5, the date of its bankruptcy hearing, things could get nasty. Psystar will almost certainly be forced to reveal its financial backers, and if they are the nefarious Svengalis that Apple claims, there may be hell to pay.

The NOR flash memory chip company, which is operating under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code, said that it is “making progress” on its restructuring plans. The company recently said it is focused on its embedded solutions and IP licensing market, and is seeking alternatives for its wireless business. The company said discussions with creditors “continue to progress.”

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The chip company also said it expect to emerge from Chapter 11 “with a sustainable business model aimed at maximizing recovery for creditors, generating free cash flow and profits,” with a run rate of about $1 billion a year.

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The stunt is designed to promote “Southland,” a new cop drama that debuts on GE’s (GE) NBC tonight. The fake “story,” which runs on the bottom-left column of the page, follows one of the show’s characters on a “ride-along” through LA.

The (not very good) lede: “It’s not every assignment that puts you in the back of a squad car, especially one that gives you a true glimpse into the hearts of the heroes behind the badge…”

Here’s what it looks like in print:

Like the New York Times ads, this might have seemed controversial several years ago, when newspapers weren’t shaking the couch cushions to try and find spare change. Now it’s just inevitable, especially given that Tribune Co., the LAT’s corporate parent, has already filed for Chapter 11.

Tellingly, the ad doesn’t show up on the homepage of the LAT’s Web site (though there is a review that calls the pilot “strangely bland”). If  you want people like me to write about an Internet ad, it’s got to be truly interesting, like the Apple (AAPL) campaign that ran earlier this year.

UPDATE: The embattled editorial staff of the Los Angeles Times, which has endured round after round of cuts, isn’t as blase about this as I am. They’re circulating a petition that describes the fake story as “embarrassing and demoralizing“.

Seeqpod, founded in 2005, has raised either $5 million or $7 million since then (I can’t vouch for either number). But its Chapter 11 filing lists assets of just $2 million, and debts of $1.6 million.

I’m used to seeing bankruptcy filings where the debt number is much bigger than the asset number. But as Seeqpod bankruptcy attorney Scott L. Goodsell patiently explained to me last night, companies frequently seek Chapter 11 specifically so they can stay pending litigation.

In this case, Seeqpod is trying to get a breather from lawsuits filed by Warner Music Group (WMG), and, more recently, EMI Music Group. Both music labels say the search engine violates their copyright by offering users streaming music it hasn’t licensed.

Seeqpod says it’s protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but at this point, Seeqpod’s legal arguments don’t matter nearly as much as its bank account.

It already owes Farella Braun + Martel, its lawyers in the copyright cases, $424,235.06, according to the filing. That’s four times more than what it owes Level 3 Communications (LVLT), its bandwidth provider.

Meanwhile, as battered as the big music companies are, they can certainly afford to keep paying their lawyers. Warner’s stock price is hovering in the $2 range, but it threw off $160 million in free cash flow in the last quarter.

Even in the good old bubble days, it would be hard for a site like Seeqpod to find investors willing to back it in a legal fight where it was that badly outgunned. Seems unlikely that it will find a champion willing to pick up the tab now.

Mark Wattles, who founded onetime Blockbuster (BBI) rival Hollywood Entertainment, has bought up a 5.7 percent stake in his former rival. And he says he thinks the company will be able to pay off its debt, $150 million of which comes due in August.

The SEC filing describing the purchase doesn’t disclose the price that Wattles paid for the shares. But he bought them on March 4th, the day after the stock plunged on reports that it was considering Chapter 11.

Blockbuster later said that it simply hired a law firm to help it with financing issues, and since then shares have rebounded. News of Wattles’ purchase pushed them up a tad more–by the end of the yesterday they were trading at $0.76, up 17% from the day before.

Wattles bought 6.8 million shares on March 4. If he paid 50 cents for each one–the midpoint of the trading range that day–he would have spent some $3.4 million. That same investment would have been worth about 100,000 shares in red-hot Netflix (NFLX).

But if Blockbuster does file Chapter 11, Wattles has some protection: He already owns a slug of the company’s 9 percent senior notes, which means he’ll have a voice in any restructuring that takes place.

Wattles’s SEC filing comes with a mini testimonial to current Blockbuster management. That’s unusual for a disclosure form, so make of that what you will. Here’s the relevant part:

The Class A shares of Common Stock were acquired… because of his belief that the Issuer does not have a motive to reorganize under Chapter 11..  Given the operating fundamentals of the Issuer combined with the short term of its real estate leases (typically five years) and the aggressive and proactive manner in which the Issuer has managed its store base (including relocations, store closings, reductions in store size and subleases), Mr. Wattles does not believe that the Issuer has a motive to reorganize under Chapter 11.  … Mr. Wattles believes the Issuer will be successful in refinancing its revolving bank line of credit, or if it cannot, that it will be able to use cash flow from operations to meet its August repayment obligations and 2009 liquidity needs.

Blockbuster (BBI) didn’t provide much detail. It boasted about fourth-quarter same-store sales and said 2008 earnings would be above expectations, and that’s about it. But it assured investors it was working “diligently” to figure out how to pay some $380 million in debt that comes due in August.

Alas, investors are giving the numbers mixed reviews. After Blockbuster put out its release, shares opened up at 61 cents–up almost 30 percent from Wednesday’s close. Now that the penny stock’s shareholders have thought it through, though, they’re selling again, and shares have dropped below 50 cents. At the beginning of the week, they were trading above $1 a share. A year ago, they were worth more than $3.

Related note: On Tuesday afternoon, as the Chapter 11 reports were surfacing, I happened to be talking to someone who worked with the company about a decade ago, when it still ruled the home video market with an iron fist. At the time, he said, Blockbuster used to get frequent calls from an entrepreneur who was desperate to get the video giant to work with, or even buy, his company. Good thing that never worked out for Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings.

But that hasn’t panned out for Blockbuster (BBI), which is  reportedly mulling a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing. No confirmation from the company yet, but investors aren’t waiting around to find out: BBI shares are now less than a quarter a piece. At the beginning of the day they traded at 96 cents. UPDATE: Blockbuster confirms it has hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis “to advise it with respect to its ongoing financing and capital raising initiatives” but tells Reuters that it can self-fund its debt through the rest of the year and that it “does not intend to file for bankruptcy.”

A little less than a year ago, you may recall, Blockbuster was trying to buy Circuit City for about $1 billion or so. But investors couldn’t see the appeal of mashing a struggling retailer with a struggling video rental company, and the deal fell through. Circuit City is currently in liquidation.

Add this to Blockbuster–and Yahoo (YHOO)–investor Carl Icahn’s list of recent disappointments.

[Image credit: travdir]

Looks like Sue was right, and the road to which he referred was a short one. The struggling telecom company has hired counsel to explore a bankruptcy filing, The Wall Street Journal reports. Nortel, well aware what such reports can do to investor confidence, insists that no such filing is imminent. The company does, however, acknowledge that it has engaged advisers to help it weather the current economic storm. Just who has Nortel hired? Word on the street says Lazard Ltd. and law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton.

Grim news for Nortel, which has spent the past several years trying to recover from the general downturn in the telecom industry and a nasty accounting scandal. With apparently very little success.

In a statement Wednesday, the company said, “Nortel is hard at work reshaping the business to even better serve our customers. There are those who fuel negative speculation, but there are many more who believe that Nortel has put in place the necessary plans to strengthen our financial footing and reset our cost base.”

Much of that debt belongs to big banks, of course–J.P. Morgan (JPM) has more than $1 billion by itself. But Tribune (TXA) owes lots (though much smaller amounts) of money to lots of media companies, too–mostly dollars that the company’s TV stations owe various studios.

Here’s who’s on the hook:

• Time Warner’s (TWX) Warner Bros. Television: $23.7 million
• News Corp.’s (NWS) Twentieth Television: $8.1 million
• Disney’s (DIS) Buena Vista Entertainment: $6.2 million
• GE’s (GE) NBCU Domestic TV: $4.9 million
• Sony’s (SNE) Sony Pictures Television: $2.2 million
• Nielsen Media Research: $1.9 million
• Viacom’s (VIA) Paramount Pictures: $1.69 million

Here’s the complete filing (click button on top right to enlarge):
Tribune’s Bankruptcy Filing

A week after announcing the closure of a fifth of its stores. in the U.S., the struggling retailer succumbed to the inevitable and filed for bankruptcy protection.

This just weeks before the start of the holiday shopping season. A bleak portent for the retail sector.

“Despite aggressive efforts to secure vendor support, vendor concerns about the company’s liquidity and ability to pay for its purchases in this difficult economic climate have escalated considerably,” the company said in a statement. “Faced with the need to secure ongoing vendor support and to ensure adequate merchandise flow to stores during the important holiday season, the company has determined that it would be in the best interest of its stakeholders to file for reorganization relief under Chapter 11.”

BlockBuster must be thanking its lucky stars it chose to abandon its $1.3 billion gambit for the foundering electronics chain….

The company has signed a deal to to sell certain assets to Olevia International Group, a new company owned by TCV Group, which provides the plastic injection molded parts for BRLC’s Olevia-branded LCD televisions. In exchange for the assets purchased, Olevia will assume $60 million of the BRLC’s secured debt. The company said its business will continue to operate as usual.

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When a company begins characterizing its assets as merely “those remaining,” as the SCO Group did earlier this year, bankruptcy is an inevitability. So it comes as little surprise to learn that the company’s hard-fought, but ultimately ludicrous, four-year legal campaign against Linux has ended in a Chapter 11 filing. Seems using litigation as a profit center to compensate for market losses isn’t such a grand idea after all.

“The Board of Directors of the SCO Group have unanimously determined that Chapter 11 reorganization is in the best long-term interest of SCO and its subsidiaries, as well as its customers, shareholders and employees,” the company said in a statement, adding that it has filed a petition for reorganization in addition to the Chapter 11 filing. SCO said the filings will help ensure that it “will not have any interruption in maintaining and honoring all of its commitments to its customers” and will allow it to pay its vendors.

The reorganization, it claims, “ensures business as usual.”

It’s worth noting, however, that the preceding is a “forward-looking statement.” And as we all know, those often involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated …

(Darl McBride image courtesy Bill Stearns)