The tasty cream-filled golden spongecakes known as Twinkies are likely to survive, even though their maker will be sold in bankruptcy court. 
 
 FILE - This Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, file photo, shows, Hostess Twinkies in a studio in New York. Twinkie lovers, relax. The tasty cream-filled golden spongecakes are likely to survive, even though their... (Associated Press) 
 
 Hostess Brands Inc., baker of Wonder Bread as well as Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Ho's, will be in a New York bankruptcy courtroom Monday to start the process of selling itself. 
 
 The company, weighed down by debt, management turmoil, rising labor costs and the changing tastes of America, decided on Friday that it no longer could make it through a conventional Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. Instead, it's asking the court for permission to sell assets and go out of business. 
 
 But with high brand recognition and $2.5 billion in revenue per year, other companies are interested in bidding for at least pieces of Hostess. Twinkies alone have brought in $68 million in revenue so far this year, which would look good to another snack-maker. 
 
 "There's a huge amount of goodwill with the commercial brand name," said John Pottow, a University of Michigan Law School professor who specializes in bankruptcy. "It's quite conceivable that they can sell the name and recipe for Twinkies to a company that wants to make them." 
 
 Hostess has said it's received inquiries about buying parts of the company. But spokesman Lance Ignon would not comment on analysts' reports that Thomasville, Ga.-based Flowers Foods Inc. and private equity food investment firm Metropoulos & Co. are likely suitors. Metropoulos owns Pabst Brewing Co., while Flowers Foods makes Nature's Own bread, Tastykake treats and other baked goods. Messages were left for spokesmen for both companies on Sunday. 
 
 "We think there's a lot of value in the brands, and we'll certainly be trying to maximize value, both of the brands and the physical assets," Ignon said Sunday. He said it's possible some of Hostess' bakeries will never return to operation because the industry has too much bakery capacity. 
 
 Little will be decided at Monday afternoon's hearing before Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, Pottow said. The judge eventually will appoint a company that specializes in liquidation to sell the assets, and the sale probably will take six months to a year to complete, Pottow said. 
 
 Irving, Texas-based Hostess filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January for the second time in less than a decade. Its predecessor company, Interstate Bakeries, sought bankruptcy protection in 2004 and changed its name to Hostess after emerging in 2009. 
 
 The company said it was saddled with costs related to its unionized workforce. The company had been contributing $100 million a year in pension costs for workers; the new contract offer would've slashed that to $25 million a year, in addition to wage cuts and a 17 percent reduction in health benefits. 
 
 Management missteps were another problem. Hostess came under fire this spring after it was revealed that nearly a dozen executives received pay hikes of up to 80 percent last year even as the company was struggling. 
 
 Then last week thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike after rejecting the company's latest contract offer. The bakers union represents about 30 percent of the company's workforce. 
 
 By that time, the company had reached a contract agreement with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which this week urged the bakery union to hold a secret ballot on whether to continue striking. Although many bakery workers decided to cross picket lines this week, Hostess said it wasn't enough to keep operations at normal levels. 
 
 The company filed a motion to liquidate Friday. The shuttering means the loss of about 18,500 jobs. Hostess said employees at its 33 factories were sent home and operations suspended. Its roughly 500 bakery outlet stores will stay open for several days to sell remaining products. 
 
 News of the decision caused a run on Hostess snacks at many stores around the country, and the snacks started appearing on the Internet at inflated prices. ||||| A box of Hostess Twinkies is seen on the shelves at a Wonder Bread Hostess Bakery Outlet in Glendale, California, in this November 16, 2012, file photo. 
 
 NEW YORK | 
 
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hostess Brands Inc won permission from a U.S. bankruptcy judge on Wednesday to begin shutting down and expressed optimism it will find new homes for many of its iconic brands, which include Twinkies, Drake's cakes and Wonder Bread. 
 
 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, New York, authorized current management, led by restructuring specialist Gregory Rayburn, to immediately begin efforts to wind down the 82-year-old company, a process expected to take one year. 
 
 "It appears clear to me that the debtors have taken the right course in seeking to implement the wind-down plan as promptly as possible," Drain said near the end of a four-hour hearing. 
 
 The judge authorized Hostess to begin the liquidation process one day after his last-ditch mediation effort between the Irving, Texas-based company and its striking bakers' union broke down. Drain said details of those talks are confidential. 
 
 Rayburn told the judge that about 15,000 workers will lose their jobs immediately. Most of the remaining 3,200 will no longer be employed after about four months. 
 
 "This is a tragedy, and we're well aware of it," Heather Lennox, a lawyer for Hostess, told the judge. "We are trying to be as sensitive as we can possibly be under the circumstances to the human cost." 
 
 The union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, has complained it should not be forced into new wage and benefit cuts, on top of earlier give-backs, while top executives rewarded themselves with higher pay, and that it was "well aware" of the potential consequences of that stance. 
 
 The union said in a court filing that its sole objective was to leave Hostess with "a real, rather than an illusory or theoretical, likelihood of establishing a stable business with secure jobs." 
 
 Union president Frank Hurt was not immediately available for comment. 
 
 Hostess has about 36 plants, including three it decided to close after the strike began, as well as 565 distribution centers and 570 bakery outlet stores. 
 
 Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Rayburn said he was disappointed that the mediation failed and that he plans to move "extremely fast" to sell Hostess' assets. Asked which bidders may fare best, he said: "The one that pays the most." 
 
 ICONIC BRANDS 
 
 Lennox said Hostess has received a "flood of inquiries" from potential buyers for several brands that could be sold at auction and expects initial bidders within a few weeks. 
 
 Joshua Scherer, a partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, which is advising Hostess, said the company was in "active dialogue" over its Drake's brand with one "very interested" party that had toured a New Jersey plant on Tuesday. 
 
 He said regional bakeries, national rivals, private equity firms and others have also expressed interest in various brands and that more than 50 nondisclosure agreements have been signed. 
 
 "These are iconic brands that people love," Scherer said. 
 
 While prospective buyers were not identified at the hearing, bankers have said rivals, including Flowers Foods Inc (FLO.N) and Mexico's Grupo Bimbo SAB de CV (BIMBOA.MX) were likely to be interested in some of the brands. 
 
 Representatives of both companies did not immediately respond on Wednesday to requests for comment. 
 
 Scherer said Hostess could be worth $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion in a normal bankruptcy, an amount equal to its annual revenue. It also has about $900 million of secured debt and faces up to about $150 million of administrative claims. 
 
 Scherer expects a discount in this case because plants have already been closed and Hostess' value could fall further if the liquidation were dragged out. 
 
 "I've had buyers tell me, 'Josh, the longer it takes ... the less value I'm going to be able to pay you,'" he said. 
 
 "BEST" OUTCOME FOR FIRED EMPLOYEES 
 
 At Wednesday's hearing, Drain addressed a variety of objections to Hostess' plan, and rejected a request to convert its Chapter 11 case to a Chapter 7 liquidation and substitute a trustee for current management to conduct asset sales. 
 
 Drain called that proposal a "disaster for all concerned," saying "very quick and nimble movement" is needed to sell assets before they lose value and fearing delays if a trustee were brought in to start from scratch. He also said existing management had behaved as a "true fiduciary." 
 
 Hostess decided to liquidate on November 16, saying it was losing about $1 million per day after the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union, representing close to one-third of its workers, went on strike a week earlier. 
 
 The bakers union walked out after Drain authorized Hostess to impose pay and benefit cuts, which the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Hostess' largest union, had accepted. 
 
 Many of the 3,200 workers expected to stay on will help shut Hostess' properties and prepare them for sale. Hostess expects to need only about 200 employees by late March. 
 
 Rayburn, a former chief restructuring officer for the bankrupt phone company WorldCom Inc, said letting 15,000 workers go helps preserve their ability to obtain unemployment benefits. 
 
 "I need to maximize the value of the estate, but I need to do the best I can for my employees," he said at the hearing. 
 
 Hostess filed for Chapter 11 protection on January 11, its second bankruptcy filing in less than three years. 
 
 The case is In re: Hostess Brands Inc et al, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-22052. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Adam Kerlin and Peter Rudegeair in White Plains, New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dan Grebler, Andrew Hay and Andre Grenon)
– Sorry, Twinkies fans: Hostess really is shutting its doors. The company threatened to do so yesterday if striking workers did not return by the end of the day. Apparently they didn't, because CNN reports that the Twinkies maker is now asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to go out of business. That will mean 18,500 employees will lose their jobs, but CNN notes that Ding Dongs and other popular items could still survive under another brand, as Hostess will be selling its assets at auction. Slate reminds us that Hostess has gone bankrupt before; that time around, Mexico's Bimbo Bakeries tried to nab it. Maybe they'll try again—although, writes Matthew Yglesias, "the company's various packaged snack cakes are cultural icons, but also pretty unfashionable in the era of artisanal cupcakes." Wonder Bread, too, has suffered as customers gravitate toward healthier options like multigrain bread. (Click to see why one food writer fervently believes it's time for the Twinkie to die.)