Reader's Digest

The Reader's Digest Association (RDA) filed for bankruptcy court protection yesterday with a pre-aranged restructuring deal with the majority of its senior secured lenders. [So this will be, fittingly enough, an abbreviated bankruptcy with the boring stuff ommitted.]

The filing includes only the RDA's US units. It also has divisions in Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand -- all of which are unaffected. Indeed, in a bit of "having/eating the cake" legerdemain, those unbankrupt units will have access to the debtor-in-possession financing that the bankruptcy filing will secure.

The bankruptcy appears to be a side-effect of the Ripplewood LBO of a couple of years ago. That and the fact that RDA is suffering from the malaise that affects all dead-tree operations these days.

RDA is represented in this bankruptcy by Kirkland & Ellis LLP. It has filed in the Manhattan bankruptcy court, case number 09-23529.