Bermuda-based Globalstar LP, a bankrupt satellite-telephone company, won a judge?s approval to sell its assets to Thermo Capital Partners LLC after a planned sale to ICO Global Communications Holdings failed.

Thermo Capital will pay $43 million in cash and assume $10 million in debt in exchange for Globalstar?s assets and an 81 percent stake in the new company. Globalstar will retain the remaining 19 percent to pay unsecured creditors. US Bankruptcy Judge Peter Walsh approved the sale at a hearing in Wilmington, Delaware. The sale is scheduled to close by December 2.

?Depending on how you count it, this is our third or fourth attempt to enter a transaction and close it,? Paul Leake, a Jones Day attorney representing Globalstar, said at the hearing. ?We have a transaction in place with Thermo Capital and we can?t lose it.?

Financier Bennett LeBow?s New Valley Corp. cancelled plans in January to take control of Globalstar after the satellite-phone company?s creditors backed out of the agreement. In April, Thermo Capital?s highest auction bid was topped by ICO, which failed to close the sale because it couldn?t reach an agreement with Qualcomm Inc., which provides technology to Globalstar.