Spansion

Situation

Spansion is a semiconductor device company that is principally dedicated to designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing and selling Flash memory products and solutions. In 2009, the Company had net sales of approximately $1.4 billion and 3,400 employees worldwide. Spansion filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. in March 2009 in order to restructure approximately $1 billion in public debt and $2 billion in liabilities.
The Spansion bankruptcy is one of the largest and most complex cases of the last several years, involving complicated and relevant issues including bondholder subordination, collateral valuation, several rounds of expert reports, the formation of multiple ad hoc committees, a dramatic rally in the pricing of its public indebtedness, competing rights offerings, securities valuation, employee equity and option grants, debtor exclusivity, and a contested confirmation hearing that included several days of testimony on valuation and plan financing.

Engagement

Gordian Group was engaged as Financial Advisor to Spansion beginning in September 2008, and continued to serve in that capacity through the Company’s emergence from bankruptcy in May 2010. Over the course of the engagement, we have worked closely with Spansion’s Board and Management and advised on strategic and financial alternatives, liquidity options, the business plan, debt capacity, and collateral values. Gordian Group also assisted in a formal sales process, led certain capital raising efforts, prepared several valuation reports and provided expert witness testimony.
Furthermore, in addition to providing the formal valuation analysis – and Court testimony – underlying the Debtor’s plan, Gordian Group advised on the development, formulation, structuring, and negotiation of the Plan of Reorganization in the face of what transpired to be a highly complex process involving negotiations with a fractured creditor constituency and various committees and parties in interest with highly diverse and competing agendas.

Outcome

The Debtors’ Plan was confirmed by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on April 16, 2010, and Spansion emerged from Bankruptcy shortly thereafter on May 10, 2010.