Amp'd Mobile filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection late last Friday night.  The startup MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) apparently owes around $100 million to various creditors, and about a third of that is IOU'd to Verizon Wireless, from whom Amp'd leases network service.

While an Amp'd press release confirmed the Chapter 11 filing, what's still only a rumor is the possible ouster of company founder and CEO Peter Adderton.  Amp'd President Bill Stone who I gushed about after seeing him speak at CTIA - said in a Wall Street Journal article, "We are pretty confident we'll come out stronger."

It's possible the 200k subscriber strong Amp'd could get through this in one way or another (see former MVNO ESPN Mobile's reinvention as a Verizon VCAST service).  But with Helio outpacing them in the same narrow "hip MVNO" market niche, it'll be a tough climb out of the Chapter 11 hole.