A bankruptcy judge Friday ruled that U.K. network operator Cable and Wireless can sell its U.S. Web hosting and IP services businesses to Savvis Communications.

The judge in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Phoenix approved the winning bid for C&W's U.S subsidiaries, and the companies hope to complete the sale of the Cable & Wireless America (CWA) businesses sometime in February, said Michael Freitag, a spokesman for C&W. CWA will continue normal operations pending the completion of the sale, but the company has not determined what will happen to its employees after the sale, Freitag said.

As part of a court-supervised sale of CWA, Savvis offered to acquire almost all of the CWA assets for $155 million in cash and to assume liabilities of approximately $12.4 million, the companies said. Savvis made a winning bid for the CWA business in a two-day auction that ended Thursday.

Last December, C&W announced it placed CWA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and intended to sell the majority of the company to Gores Technology Group LLC, in Los Angeles, for $125 million. At the time, C&W said it entered Chapter 11 to facilitate the sale to Gores Technology.

As part of the bankruptcy process, however, qualifying bidders could submit higher and better offers for CWA. Savvis was one of seven bidders for the CWA assets.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.