LBI Media‘s debtor-in-possession status and ongoing battles between first-lien and second-lien noteholders in a Delaware bankruptcy court aren’t impacting the company from operating with business as usual.
The owner of Spanish-language radio stations and the Estrella TV broadcast TV network is formally welcoming its new SVP of Network Sales for its over-the-air Hispanic-targeted video offering — a woman in the role since December.
Now serving in the role is Laura Fisher, who reports directly to COO Winter Horton and will see all sales and marketing efforts for a Spanish-language TV network that continues to grow audience, in particular in its home market of Los Angeles.
In particular, Fisher will be responsible for developing and implementing strategic marketing and advertising opportunities for the network’s clients in the U.S. market.
Fisher joins LBI Media after most recently serving as Sales Director for ZEFR, a “content targeting solution helping brands navigate video advertising on YouTube.”
However, she’s best known in the U.S. Hispanic market for her 21 years at Univision Communications, serving as a VP and, before that, account executive for network sales until October 2017.
Early career stops include Sesame Workshop and Hearst Magazines’ Motor Boating and Sailing.
She is based in New York.
“We are very pleased to have Laura join our network team,” Horton said. “She has a deep understanding of the business and an unmatched work ethic to over-deliver with very creative solutions. Under Laura’s direction, we will be reaching out to all agencies and advertisers, and inviting them to experience EstrellaTV.”
Horton’s comments come as Bankruptcy Petition #: 18-12655-CSS weaves its way through a Delaware bankruptcy court.
On Saturday, a redacted version of the Official Committee Of Unsecured Creditors Statement In Support Of Confirmation Of Debtors Modified Second Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan Of Reorganization And Omnibus Response To Objections To Plan Confirmation was filed with the court.
Noting that “an all-out war” between the noteholders and LBI Media was en route, “the
Committee has achieved enhanced recoveries for unsecured creditors despite the intractable hostility between and among various other parties in the cases.”
That’s a very welcome development for LBI Media, and puts the Noteholders on notice that their legal claims could be on thin ice.
“While the Committee has not finally determined to what extent it may agree or disagree with the Noteholders’ allegations and legal conclusions, the Committee nevertheless believes that the Plan can and should be confirmed,” it states. “As the Court has noted, these are not unusually large cases and the Debtors simply cannot sustain endless litigation.”
On Sunday (3/24), copies of The Ad Hoc Group of Noteholders’ Objection to the Debtors’ and HPS’s Motions to Seal (D.I. 748) were served.
Then, on Monday, a motion filed by LBI Media “to maintain under seal certain portions of its memorandum of law in support of confirmation of the second amended joint Chapter 11 plan of reorganization … and reply of HPS Investment Partners to the second lien noteholders’ objection to confirmation of the debtors’ modified second amended joint Chapter 11 plan” was filed.
It now remains whether the noteholders will cooperate, or continue its fight against LBI and HPS.
