Windstream Communications, which employs about 650 people in Greenville's tallest building, has filed for bankruptcy protection, less than two weeks after losing a major court battle with a U.S. hedge fund.

The Little Rock, Arkansas-based company announced late Monday that it and all of its 205 subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. Windstream set up a website — windstreamrestructuring.com — to help answer questions that customers and business partners might have.

The filing came 10 days after a $310 million ruling against Windstream over bond agreements with Aurelius Capital Management LP, according to reporting in the Rochester, New York, Democrat and Chronicle newspaper.

Windstream, which operates in 18 states and has 12,000 employees nationwide, occupies 143,000 square feet of the Landmark building in downtown Greenville, according to CBRE, the building's management company.

David Avery, vice president for corporate affairs at Windstream, said Greenville is and will remain one of the company's biggest and most important work sites.

"We are continuing to operate the business in the same manner today as we did yesterday," Avery said.

No cutbacks in the company's workforce are foreseen at this time, he said, adding that the bankruptcy court filing helps assure that the company will be in a much stronger financial position for the long term.

"Greenville is a major base of operations for us," Avery said. "And we remain committed to Greenville. Greenville is a terrific place to do business. We have a very skilled and talented workforce there."

Windstream is known for providing phone and internet services in rural communities like Lexington, South Carolina, Avery said, but it also provides cloud-based communication services to business clients. The company's Greenville site primarily handles business clients.

Tony Thomas, president and chief executive officer of Windstream, said in a prepared statement that there would be no disruption in services.

“With approval from the Court, we will continue paying our employees, maintaining our relationships with our vendors and business partners and serving our customers as usual," Thomas said. "We remain committed to providing critical voice and data services and ensuring customers realize the maximum benefit in transitioning to next-generation technology solutions and premium broadband services.”

The Feb. 15, 2019, ruling by the Southern District of New York's Judge Jesse Furman against Windstream was a major blow to the company, which has — according to its bankruptcy filing — at least 50 major creditors each owed amounts ranging from $1.3 million to $807 million from the telecommunications company.

Bond debt the company owes to the U.S. Bank National Association alone exceeds $1 billion.

Windstream said it has received $1 billion in debtor financing from Citigroup Global Markets Inc. that together with operational cash will meet the company's operational needs without any disruptions.

Furman's ruling concerned one of Windstream's affiliates, Windstream Services LLC, and its 2015 "spinoff of certain telecommunications network assets into a real estate investment trust," according to Windstream. The judge's ruling held that this spinoff, which had been challenged in court by Aurelius Capital Management and U.S. Bank National Association, violated an agreement with bondholders.

"Windstream strongly disagrees with Judge Furman’s decision,” Windstream CEO Thomas said in a statement. “The Company believes that Aurelius engaged in predatory market manipulation to advance its own financial position through credit default swaps at the expense of many thousands of shareholders, lenders, employees, customers, vendors and business partners."

Aurelius issued a statement last week saying the hedge fund took no pleasure in Windstream's predicament.

"Windstream could easily have averted it — first by not playing fast and loose with its noteholders in 2015, hoping nobody would hold the company to account, and second by settling," the statement from Aurelius said. "Instead, Windstream wasted an exorbitant amount — more than would have been needed to settle with us at the time – on an ineffective exchange offer and then on litigation.

Thomas said Windstream's Chapter 11 filing was not due to operational failures and said the company does not anticipate the need to restructure "material operations."