On October 22, 2007, American technology company
SCO asked a bankruptcy court to approve a deal whereby a purchaser would acquire "substantially all assets used by the Company in connection with its SCO
UNIX Business and certain related claims in litigation." The agreement included a "stalking horse" provision: If the purchaser, York Capital Management, were to be designated as a stalking horse in subsequent bidding for SCO's assets, and if others outbid York, then SCO would have to pay York a $780,000 breakup fee and reimbursement of all expenses incurred by York up to $300,000. In this way, York would earn its expenses and $780,000 by acting as the stalking horse and preventing other bidders from making lowball offers. On August 4, 2008, Steve and Barry's LLC, a
retailer of casual apparel, filed a stalking horse agreement with the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Southern District of New York. Their partner in this
asset purchase agreement was BH S&B Holding LLC, a subsidiary of
Bay Harbor Management. On July 27, 2009,
The Wall Street Journal reported that Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson had won a stalking horse bid to acquire Nortel Networks Corp's CDMA division, for $1.13 billion. On July 8, 2010, the
Texas Rangers Major League Baseball team announced a potential stalking horse deal. "'An auction with a stalking horse, or minimum, bid is more frequently used than a so-called “naked” auction without a floor price,' William K. Snyder, the court-appointed restructuring officer, said. 'Moreover, the stalking horse bidder commonly receives a “reasonable” break-up fee if unsuccessful in the auction,' said Snyder. Under the scrapped plan, the $304 million in cash portion of the Greenberg-Ryan group’s May 24 deal with owner Tom Hicks would serve as a minimum bid, with the next bid at least $20 million higher. Greenberg-Ryan would have received $15 million if it lost." On February 21, 2011,
Reuters reported
Blockbuster's intention to pursue a $290 million stalking horse offer with Cobalt Video Holdco. On April 4, 2011,
TechCrunch reported
Google's intention to pursue a $900 million stalking horse bid for
Nortel's patents. In 2013,
Hostess Brands used a stalking horse auction to sell off its assets in bankruptcy. On October 17, 2013, Designline, now known as
Environmental Performance Vehicles, a Charlotte, NC bus manufacturer, used the technique but received no offers. On April 15, 2013,
Eastman Kodak proposed a stalking horse deal of $210 million whereby
Brother Industries would acquire Kodak's Document Imaging division ahead of Kodak's bankruptcy court approval slated for June 2013. On June 10, 2016,
Ziff Davis proposed a stalking-horse bid of under US$90 million after
Gawker Media announced it was filing for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On March 7, 2017,
Extreme Networks entered into a stalking horse arrangement for a portion of assets held by
Avaya, which was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the time. Avaya eventually emerged from bankruptcy protection, making this a rare occasion when a stalking horse auction was not held for assets of a defunct company. The deal was closed on July 17, 2017. In 2019,
Houlihan's Restaurant, Inc. announced a chapter 11 bankruptcy that involves a stalking horse bid by
Landry's, Inc. On July 1, 2024, Delta Apparel filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy with a deal in hand to sell its Salt Life brand. The Duluth, Ga., company said it plans to sell certain assets related to its Salt Life branded products for about $28 million to FCM Saltwater Holdings, which has agreed to act as the stalking horse, or lead, bidder in a court-supervised auction for the assets. ==Further reading==