Comdisco Receives Court Approval of Bidding Procedures for Sale of Availability Solutions to Hewlett-Packard.Business Editors ROSEMONT, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 2001 Comdisco Employee Retention, Incentive and Severance Programs and Worldwide Cash Management Programs Approved Comdisco Authorized To Continue Full Scale Services, Leasing and Ventures Ordinary Course Operations Including Payment of Certain Prepetition Claims, Sale and Leasing of Assets, and Management of Loan Portfolios Final Orders Approved On First-Day Motions Comdisco, Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : CDO (Collaborative Data Objects) A programming interface from Microsoft for accessing MAPI-based e-mail, calendaring and scheduling servers. Originally called "OLE Messaging" and "Active Messaging," CDO wraps the Enhanced MAPI library into a COM object that provides the ) announced yesterday that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court bankruptcy court n. the specialized Federal court in which bankruptcy matters under the Federal Bankruptcy Act are conducted. There are several bankruptcy courts in each state, and each one's territory covers several counties. for the Northern District of Illinois approved consensual CONSENSUAL, civil law. This word is applied to designate one species of contract known in the civil laws; these contracts derive their name from the consent of the parties which is required in their formation, as they cannot exist without such consent. 2. bidding procedures proposed by the Company related to the proposed sale of Comdisco's Availability Solutions (Technology Services) business to Hewlett-Packard Company. The bidding procedures were supported by the Company's Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors Unsecured Creditor An individual or institution that lends money without obtaining specified assets as collateral. This poses a higher risk to the creditor because they have nothing to fall back on should the borrower default on the loan. A debenture holder is an unsecured creditor. and several prospective bidders that had earlier filed objections to the bidding procedures. Among other matters, the Court accepted Comdisco's proposed bid deadline of September 30, 2001 and auction date of October 11, 2001 for competitive bidding Competitive bidding A securities offering process in which securities firms submit competing bids to the issuer for the securities the issuer wishes to sell. competitive bidding 1. to determine whether a higher or otherwise better offer should be considered, and set October 23, 2001 as the sale hearing date to consider approval of the Hewlett-Packard or alternative transaction. In the event that the Court approves the proposed sale to Hewlett-Packard, the transaction is scheduled to close on November 16, 2001, approximately thirty days later than the original closing deadline. As announced on July 16, 2001, Comdisco has reached a definitive agreement to sell this business to Hewlett-Packard Company for $610 million. Norm Blake, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are pleased that the bankruptcy court and our creditor representatives are continuing to be supportive of our efforts to move Comdisco through the reorganization process in an efficient and effective manner. Just three weeks into our reorganization cases, approval of the bidding procedures for the sale of the Availability Solutions business is an important milestone for the company, as well as our customers, employees and business partners." Simultaneously with entering into the agreement with Hewlett-Packard on July 16, Comdisco, Inc. and 50 domestic U.S. subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for relief under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code Bankruptcy Code may refer to:
v. re·or·gan·ized, re·or·gan·iz·ing, re·or·gan·iz·es v.tr. To organize again or anew. v.intr. To undergo or effect changes in organization. on a sound financial basis to support its ongoing businesses. The Bankruptcy Court also considered and granted all relief requested by Comdisco at yesterday's omnibus hearing An omnibus hearing is a pretrial hearing. It is usually scheduled two weeks from the date of the arraignment, unless otherwise mentioned in court. The main purpose of it is to introduce evidence, including testimony from police officials and seizing evidence from the defendant. on nineteen other separate matters. Among the matters receiving approval were: -- Comdisco's employee retention, incentive and severance programs for all of its employees (the Company's programs for certain senior management employees and its emergence program will be considered at the August 23, 2001 omnibus hearing previously scheduled by the Bankruptcy Court); -- Continuation of Comdisco's full-scale ordinary course business operations in its Leasing, Services and Ventures business units including authority to pay certain prepetition claims, sell and lease assets, and manage loan portfolios; -- Continuation of Comdisco's worldwide cash management program and practices including the continuation of intercompany transactions with non-debtor affiliates and waiver of bankruptcy investment and deposit requirements; -- Continuation of interim authority to borrow up to $200 million on the Company's $600 million debtor-in-possession financing facility (with final approval for the entire facility scheduled for the August 23, 2001 omnibus hearing); -- Continuation of the wind-down of the Company's former Prism business unit including the rejection of certain real property leases and authority to divest assets; -- Establishment of adequate assurance arrangements and procedures for utilities providing services to Comdisco; and -- Retention of Comdisco's financial and legal advisors for the Company's chapter 11 reorganization cases. "The combined effect of receiving final approval for continuation of Comdisco's worldwide cash management system and practices together with continuation of our full-scale ordinary course business practices in all of our business units completes a very successful launch of our reorganization cases for our Services, Leasing and Ventures businesses," said Mr. Blake. "We are especially gratified grat·i·fy tr.v. grat·i·fied, grat·i·fy·ing, grat·i·fies 1. To please or satisfy: His achievement gratified his father. See Synonyms at please. 2. that the extraordinary efforts of our employees has been recognized through the approval of competitive and appropriate retention, incentive and severance programs." Comdisco's operations located outside of the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. were not included in the chapter 11 reorganization cases. All of Comdisco's businesses, including those that filed for chapter 11, are conducting normal operations Generally and collectively, the broad functions that a combatant commander undertakes when assigned responsibility for a given geographic or functional area. Except as otherwise qualified in certain unified command plan paragraphs that relate to particular commands, "normal operations" of . Comdisco is continuing to pursue other strategic alternatives to create value for its stakeholders Stakeholders All parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm-stockholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, the community, and the government. , including evaluating the possible sale of certain of its leasing assets to several interested buyers. The company intends to reorganize its remaining businesses, including Comdisco Ventures, on a "fast-track" basis and has targeted emergence from chapter 11 during early 2002. About Comdisco Comdisco (www.comdisco.com) provides technology services worldwide to help its customers maximize technology functionality, predictability and availability, while freeing them from the complexity of managing their technology. The Rosemont, (IL) company offers a complete suite of information technology services including business continuity, managed web hosting Making a Web site available on the Internet. Many ISPs host a few personal Web pages for an individual at no additional cost above the monthly service fee, but the address is subordinate to the ISP; for example, www.friendlyisp.com/pat_smith. , storage and IT Control and Predictability Solutions(SM). Comdisco offers leasing to key vertical industries, including semiconductor manufacturing and electronic assembly, healthcare, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and manufacturing. Through its Ventures division, Comdisco provides equipment leasing Equipment Leasing is a financing option to lease equipment for a certain amount of time. Leasing Benefits
Safe Harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. : The foregoing contains forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. regarding Comdisco. They reflect the company's current views with respect to current events and financial performance, are subject to many risks, uncertainties and factors relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc the company's operations and business environment which may cause the actual results of the company to be materially different from any future results, express or implied by such forward-looking statements. The company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the Safe Harbor created by Section 27(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. The words and phrases Words and Phrases® A multivolume set of law books published by West Group containing thousands of judicial definitions of words and phrases, arranged alphabetically, from 1658 to the present. "expect," "estimate," and "anticipate" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Certain factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following: the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern; the ability of the Company to operate pursuant to the terms of the DIP Facility; Court approval of the Company's first day papers and other motions prosecuted by it from time to time; the ability of the Company to develop, prosecute, confirm and consummate one or more plans of reorganization with respect to the Chapter 11 Cases; risks associated with third parties seeking and obtaining court approval to terminate or shorten the exclusivity period for the Company to propose and confirm one or more plans of reorganization, for the appointment of a Chapter 11 trustee or to convert the Company's cases to Chapter 7 cases; the ability of the Company to reduce its workforce and related expenses and to achieve anticipated cost savings; year end audit and other procedures which may affect the Company's 2001 financial results; the ability of the Company to obtain trade credit, and shipments and terms with vendors and service providers for current orders; potential adverse developments with respect to the Company's liquidity or results of operations; the ability to fund and execute its business plan; the ability of the Company to attract, retain and compensate key executives and associates; the ability of the Company to attract and retain customers; potential adverse publicity; and adjustments arising in the course of completing the analysis of information with respect to the review of the company's businesses and evaluation of impairment Impairment 1. A reduction in a company's stated capital. 2. The total capital that is less than the par value of the company's capital stock. Notes: 1. This is usually reduced because of poorly estimated losses or gains. 2. charges; continuing volatility in the equity markets, which can affect the availability of credit and other funding sources to the high technology sector companies in the Ventures portfolio, resulting in the inability of those companies to satisfy their obligations in a timely manner and an increase in bad debt experience beyond current reserves; continued consolidation in the telecommunications industry and curtailment Curtailment The act of contracting or reducing operations of a company in the hope of bringing it financial or operational stability. This management technique is often used when a company has grown too fast and is unable to effectively manage its operations. of the growth plans of the remaining companies in that sector, which could result in fewer buyers and reduced prices for available Prism assets, and a further reduction in the proceeds actually received from the sale of those assets compared to prior estimates and an increase in the losses associated with the discontinued operation discontinued operation A segment of a business that has been abandoned or sold or for which plans for one or another of these actions have been approved. See also continuing operations. . Other risk factors are listed from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including, but not limited to, the report on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. for the quarter ended December 31, 2000. Comdisco disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. |
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