Company Activities and Information

Energy Future Holdings Is Fighting to Give Executives at Least $20 Million in Bonuses

As Brantley Hargrove extensively reported for Unfair Park over the previous two years, Energy Future Holdings, the largest electricity generator in Texas, is a mess. Facing $40 billion in debt, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April and is in the process of selling off one of its most ... More >>

Energy Future Holdings, Texas' Biggest Power Generator, May File for Bankruptcy This Month

Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, the electricity giant taken private in the biggest leveraged buyout in history, has been teetering toward bankruptcy for some time. Over-leveraged, with too much debt and not enough revenue in a weak electricity market, sources close to the negotiations tell Bloo ... More >>

Dallas-based Luminant Seeks to "Suspend Operations" at Martin Lake Power Plant Unit Due to Cheap Electricity Prices

Luminant, Texas' largest electricity generator, has applied to "suspend operations" at its Martin Lake coal-fired plant near Tatum. If the request is approved by grid operators, it will result in the loss of 750 megawatts hours, or enough to power about 750,000 homes. A Luminant spokeswoman says the ... More >>

DOJ Sues Dallas-based Power Generator Luminant for Alleged Clean Air Act Violations

Last summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency put Dallas-based power generator Luminant on notice, warning the utility that its northeast Texas Big Brown and Martin Lake plants were in violation of the Clean Air Act. The company's coal-fired plants, EPA contended, had been modified, resultin ... More >>

Oncor's "Phantom Tax" Windfall May Become Permanent as Bill Hits Texas House Floor

Oncor, the Dallas-based sticks-and-wires utility, has collected half a billion dollars from ratepayers since 2007 for federal income taxes. But according to a report, the IRS hasn't received a dime. In fact, most of that cash has gone to its struggling parent, Energy Future Holdings, which is march ... More >>

Report: Customers Have Forked Over $500 Million to Cover Oncor's Phantom Tax Payments

Dallas-based utility Oncor has collected half a billion dollars from ratepayers to cover federal income taxes it has never paid. Last year alone, customers paid $230 million to reimburse the utility for a "phantom" tax bill, according to a new report from the Texas Coalition for Affordable Power. T ... More >>

Snuffer's to Rebuild Iconic Greenville Location

The original Snuffer's location at 3526 Greenville Ave. is going away soon. But, not to worry your little cheddar fries-laced arteries. The old spot is coming down so a new spot can go up. Late Sunday night Snuffer's announced via their Facebook page plans to rebuild: "In March 1978 we were buildi ... More >>

Hedge Fund Says Tottering, Dallas-based Electricity Giant is Screwing Creditors

Aurelius Capital Management, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund and perpetual pain-in-the-ass for distressed companies like Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, sued the massive utility in federal court Tuesday for $725 million. It claims Energy Future made some sweetheart intra-company loans even as ... More >>

The Strange Case of Jeff Baron, Domain-Squatting Web Pioneer Turned Legal Crusader

On November 9 at a downtown Dallas law office, some 153,000 Internet domain names hit the auction block. The winning bidder was an entity known as Trans, Ltd., which put down $5.2 million and scooped up the names over the objections of their previous owner, Ondova, LLC. That auction never should ha ... More >>

Justice Departent Swoops in to Prevent Parking Monopoly in Dallas (and Elsewhere)

If you've ever wondered who controls any given parking lot downtown, the answer is probably either Central Parking Corporation or Standard Parking Corporation. Central owns more than a dozen locations there, according to its website. Standard owns several more, though its website doesn't say exactly ... More >>

Our Largest Electricity Generator Looks Like It's Preparing for Bankruptcy

Market seers think Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings, which owns the state's biggest power generating assets, might be engaging in a little prebankruptcy housekeeping. The latest sign? It's repayment of an inter-company loan. Energy Future isn't a single, vertically integrated giant like it was w ... More >>

Will the Firewall Protecting Oncor From Its Basketcase Parent Company Keep It From Getting Burned?

Oncor, the transmission company that runs power lines and electricity meters, is just about the only good thing Dallas-based Energy Future Holdings has going for it. Energy Future's generation arm, Luminant, the largest unregulated power generator in Texas, has seen its coal-fired power plants preci ... More >>

So There's a Good Chance Energy Future, Texas' Largest Power Generator, Goes Broke

A major credit-rating agency is expressing grave doubts about the ability of the state's largest nonregulated power generator to pay off its debt. Energy Future Holdings, the Dallas-based parent company of power generator Luminant, transmission company Oncor and retail electricity provider TXU Ener ... More >>

The Race For Dallas ISD's District 1 School Board Seat Is Going to Be Very Interesting

​Like I was saying, or writing, earlier this morning ...When Edwin Flores announced he wasn't going to seek re-election to the Dallas Independent School District board two weeks ago, the District 1 trustee said he'd hold off on making an endorsement. At the time, only one other candidate had annou ... More >>

Warren Buffett Calls His Investment in Dallas-Based Energy Future Holdings a "Big Mistake," At Risk of Being Wiped Out

Warren Buffett, the inimitable Jesus of Investing, got it wrong, he admits. Investing in the highly leveraged buyout of Texas utility TXU by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs was a bad bet, plain and simple, he told his shareholders in a letter Saturday. And if things at the former TXU (now ... More >>

Hostess Is Going Bankrupt. Again.

Hostess, the Irving-based maker of beloved school-lunch snacks like the Twinkie and the Ho-Ho, is in financial trouble, according to the Wall Street Journal. A source tells the paper that the processed food giant will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week. Hostess also owe ... More >>

DISD's Latest Budget-Gut Guesstimates, and Central Admin Staffers to Get Buyout Offers

Lynn Moak briefs Dallas ISD trustees Thursday afternoon.​Last night, Robert teased us all with the news that Lynn Moak, from Dallas ISD's lobbyist-consultant group Moak Casey & Associates, would be taking a seat before trustees this afternoon with an update from Austin on the Legislature's att ... More >>

Wall Street Journal: Blockbuster's Chapter 11 Filing Could Come "In Next Few Days"

​Today could be the day Blockbuster officially files for bankruptcy. So reports The Wall Street Journal, echoing that earlier Los Angeles Times piece that said CEO Jim Keyes had been in Hollywood at August's end briefing studio heads on the inevitable next chapter in the beleaguered Renaissance To ... More >>

Blockbuster's Financials Worse Than Expected. But It Does Get Debt Repayment Extension.

Jim Keyes​Now we know why Blockbuster put off announcing its second-quarter financials last night: Says the downtown-based video-and-game-rental giant (well, once), it was getting its noteholders to sign off on a deal allows the company to keep $42.4 mil in debt payments for another few weeks. Tha ... More >>

Apparently, Judge's Ruling in Rangers Chapter 11 Case is the Rorschach Inkblot of Sports

​Yesterday afternoon, after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Lynn delayed the sale of the Texas Rangers to Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan's Rangers Baseball Express pending some changes, both the Texas Rangers Baseball Partners and the first lien lendors had their reps send press releases huzzah-ing ... More >>

The United States Trustee Breaks Down (And Tears Apart) the Rangers' Bankruptcy Filing

Sam MertenChuck Greenberg, Tom Hicks and Nolan Ryan at Monday's press conference formally announcing the Chapter 11 filing on Monday​Below you'll find one of many docs submitted to the federal bankruptcy court this week concerning Your Texas Rangers' voluntary Chapter 11 filing, done with the inte ... More >>

Your Texas Rangers Unveil Plan to Complete Sale of Team to Chuck Greenberg, Nolan Ryan

​Moments ago, John Blake, exec veep of communication for Your Texas Rangers, sent word that there is, at long last, a plan in place that will finally give Chuck Greenberg and Nolan Ryan's Rangers Baseball Express control of the team. And, yes, it does involve "a voluntary, 'prepackaged,' court-sup ... More >>

Richard Allen on Logistics Hub's Chapter 11: "It's a Good Project. It's Just a Timing Issue."

Richard Allen​Over the last year, whenever I have spoken with Richard Allen, CEO of The Allen Group, he has been open at times, guarded at others. But I have to say today, when he and I talked about his entry into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, he sounded better than he has in some time -- more confidant ... More >>

Tom Hicks's Acquisitions Venture Tries One More Time to Acquire Something

​Tom Hicks has been all kinds of busy making deals; alas, none of 'em Rangers-related. Instead, it's his publicly traded investment company, Hicks Acquisitions, making news this week, as once more he tries to keep the venture from being delisted by the New York Stock Exchange, which threatened to ... More >>

While Rating City's Hotel Bonds, Moody's Says Dallas Is "Vying For a Relatively Fixed Number of Conventions" Among "Strong Competition"

Brian HarkinDo you think President Obama ever imagined his stimulus package would help Dallas build a convention center hotel? This guy sure did.As the city's hotel development corporation prepares to sell what is now $505,230,000 in revenue bonds to build the convention center hotel, Moody's Invest ... More >>

Moody's Blues: Dallas Independent School District's Bond Credit Ratings Slip

In a subscription-only story published this morning, The Bond Buyer notes that both Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's have downgraded their ratings of the Dallas Independent School District. Both still consider the district a relatively safe investment, but the downgrades reflect a ... More >>

Southwest Airlines, a Symbol of Freedom

Southwest Airlines announced this morning that it's living up to that old motto, offering nearly every single employee what CEO Gary Kelly calls an "early out" in the wake of a first-quarter net loss, the Dallas-based carrier's third straight decline. Southwest today announced a first-quarter '09 ne ... More >>

Alas, Not Even Sarah Palin Could Keep Neimans From Losing Money

Neiman Marcus this morning posted its October revenues report -- and the Dallas-based luxury retailer's income for the month dropped decreased 27.6 percent, from $383 million in October '07 to $281 million in '08. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Burt Tansky, Neimans' chair ... More >>

Blockbuster Wins Some, Loses a Lot

On his blog last week, Carl Ichan noted that it was his idea to install Jim Keyes as chairman and CEO of Blockbuster and that Keyes "has saved approximately $100 million in operating costs over the past year, a laudable result." Keyes has also managed to increase the Dallas-based company's revenues ... More >>

Review: Cafe R&D

Café R&D serves up pretty, tasty dishes, but where's the meow mix?

Items of Interest, Far As You Know

A couple of random notes to keep you dry. First off, turns out we now have some idea why Justice Department official raided the offices of Dallas-based ice maker Reddy Ice earlier this month. Something to do with, oh, allegations of price-fixing, revealed late last week in a federal lawsuit filed in ... More >>

Burger Joint Love Shack Coming to Victory Park

Chef Tim Love says nothing's worse than a crappy burger

On the Brinker

Headline from The Dallas Morning News, posted at 7:50 a.m.: "Brinker predicts 40% gain in earnings." Lead paragraph: "Brinker International Inc. Monday predicted its second-quarter earnings per share from continuing operations will be up nearly 40 percent, despite falling customer traffic at some of ... More >>

Back on Its Heelys

Carrollton-based Heelys this morning announced a "new national skate team comprised of some of the nation’s top skaters." The nine skaters range in age from 21 to 7, and the point of their new team is to "further develop the sport of hybrid skating, the combination of walking and running with skat ... More >>

Belo Corp. Now a Split Personality

Well, you can't say you didn't see it coming. Exactly four months after Citigroup analyst Eileen Furukawa upgraded Belo Corp.'s stock from "hold" to "buy" based on the value of company's TV properties alone, The Dallas Morning News and WFAA-TV's parent company announced, yup, it's separating its new ... More >>

Belo: The Good, The Bad and the Fugly

TXU, The Buyout and the Power of "Greenmail"

I am sure you've read your latest issue of Pensions Management by now, but if you've yet to crack the April ish, here's a sneak peak at one column inside. Douglas Cogan, who's the environmental, social and governance research director at Institutional Shareholder Services, writes that on the very sa ... More >>

Blockbuster Almost Done Making "Triple Play." Didn't That Star Billy Baldwin?

Still Plenty of Smoke to Be Cleared in TXU Deal

A press release has gone out announcing that the law firm of Steve Susman, the Houston-based attorney representing Mayor Laura Miller's Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition, has "successfully concluded its pro bono representation" of the coalition in its fight against TXU's 11 proposed coal-fired power ... More >>

At Least the Trees Will be Happy

Want to know what your daily newspaper will look like in the future? You're looking at it, sort of. It's your computer screen. Well, duh, you say. Haven't we known that for at least 10 or 15 years? Yes, we have, smartypants, but Belo Corp.'s earnings report for the second quarter, released today, of ... More >>

That's News to The News

Amazing the stuff you find trolling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Web site when you've got nothing else to do. For instance, take this little item from Belo Corp.'s Form 10-K annual report, filed with the SEC just last week: "On January 5, 2006, Infinity Radio, Inc., a subsidiary o ... More >>

Odds & Ends

Changing Chapters

Sipango sees another chef shift

Have It Your Way

Jeanie Terilli is expanding her domain

Sushi wars

Two Deep Ellum sushi bars are locked in raw battle

Is this any way to run an airport?

Black bookseller Robert Crews once ran a thriving store at D/FW. Now he's in court fighting to save his business, thanks to airport policies that boost local minorities and squeeze airport concessionaires

Slim Pickens

An angry wife does to T. Boone Pickens what his corporate victims could only dream of

Don't cry for me, Amarillo

T. Boone Pickens Jr. has lost millions, been booted out of his own company, and his wife wants a divorce. Miriam Rozen chronicles the downward spiral of the once-fearsome Learjet Cowboy.

Letters

Rushes