Filing

Walt Disney Co. revealed in a government corporate filing that a court fight over the merchandising rights to Winnie the Pooh characters could, in the worst-case scenario, cost the company several hundred million dollars and affect the value of future licensing rights for the lucrative Pooh characters. The disclosure was made in a quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It marks the first time Disney has notified shareholders of the potential impact of the 11-year-old legal battled with Stephen Slesinger Inc. That family-owned company acquired the merchandising rights to the Hundred Acre Wood characters from author A.A. Milne in 1930.

RailWorks Corp., once a rapidly growing supplier of services to the railroad industry, announced yesterday that it had succumbed to a series of financial troubles and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move comes a month after the Baltimore-based company reported a $38.1 million second-quarter net loss that violated terms of its bank loans. In its filing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Baltimore, the company listed assets of $569.6 million and liabilities of $523.2 million as of June 30. RailWorks has about 2,600 workers in the United States and Canada, including 25 at its corporate headquarters here.

Ciena Corp., the Linthicum maker of fiber-optic equipment, has filed a shelf offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow the company to sell $1.5 billion in debt securities, preferred and common stock, warrants and depositary shares. Ciena said in a news release that the offering gives it the flexibility to raise money through stock or debt. Bill Rose, a Ciena spokesman, said the money could be used to pay off debts or for acquisitions. Rose said the money would give the company more capital to continue to grow and that by filing the statement, "We can act quicker when market opportunities arrive."

Baltimore City will be able to continue seeking new proposals for its 17-acre slots casino site in South Baltimore, after a rejected bidder dropped a legal request to halt the process for finding a developer. The Baltimore City Entertainment Group — the sole bidder in 2009 for the site near Oriole Park at Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium — has withdrawn its request for an injunction, according the company's attorney, John F. Dougherty. A hearing had been scheduled for Thursday morning, after Canadian developer Michael Moldenhauer filed motions in Baltimore City Circuit Court last month for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction.

WASHINGTON - Saying the Microsoft Corp. antitrust case "deserves the speediest possible resolution," the Justice Department and 19 states urged a federal appeals court to push the case along in about half the time Microsoft wants. "It is essential for effective antitrust law enforcement in a critical sector of the nation's economy that the appeal be concluded expeditiously," the department and the states argued in a new filing at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington. To emphasize their desire for speed, they filed the document yesterday, a day before it was due. The case, including its main feature - a federal judge's order to break Microsoft into two software companies - is pending before the Court of Appeals after the Supreme Court refused to bypass it, as the trial judge, the Justice Department and the states urged.

McCrory Corp., one of the last remaining titans of the ailing variety-store industry, sought shelter from its creditors yesterday amid strong doubts it will find anything more than temporary refuge.The York, Pa.-based chain, a fixture in the Baltimore market since the 1950s, said it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy because it will be unable to pay bondholders $75 million due in July.Its petition, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, listed $542.7 million in liabilities and $671.9 million in assets as of Feb. 21. The company's stores will remain open while its management formulates a reorganization plan.

Negotiations between the Orioles and representatives of third baseman Cal Ripken have intensified in an effort to prevent the 40-year-old organizational icon from filing for free agency for the first time in his Hall of Fame career. With a 15-day free-agent filing period beginning immediately after the World Series, Ripken is apparently seeking a de facto rollover of the contract that paid him a $6.3 million base salary last season. While the club has considered offering the perennial All-Star a lower base salary combined with appearance incentives, majority owner Peter Angelos and vice president of baseball operations Syd Thrift have expressed confidence in a tidy resolution.

Lawyers for First Mariner Bancorp mistakenly filed a draft document yesterday with federal regulators stating that the bank has agreed to acquire nearly 20 percent of Glen Burnie Bancorp and seek control of the $225 million-asset banking company."

CHICAGO -- The Internal Revenue Service has announced a change in America's calendar: It is telling millions of taxpayers they can ignore April 15.Without so much as filing a form, any taxpayer who is due a refund or who has paid 100 percent of his or her income taxes through withholding or estimated tax payments can wait until Oct. 15 to file a return. Anyone who has paid at least 90 percent of the taxes due can wait until Aug. 15; interest will be charged on the remainder, but no penalty will be assessed.

AmeriDebt Inc.'s surprise bankruptcy filing over the weekend won't affect consumers here or disrupt a plan to transfer the credit counselor's Maryland clients to another agency in the next few weeks, state regulators said yesterday. Montgomery County-based AmeriDebt, in the business of helping consumers manage their debt payments to creditors, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Saturday. This will allow the nonprofit agency to keep its creditors at bay while reorganizing its finances.