Mt. Gox suitors seek creditor support to save bitcoin exchange

(Reuters) - A group of investors, which is seeking to buy Mt. Gox, has launched a website to garner support from creditors of the bankrupt bitcoin exchange to prevent a liquidation of its assets. "We need your help to stop a liquidation, which would be good neither for Mt. Gox creditors nor Bitcoin's reputation with the general public and regulators," the investors wrote on the website. (http://r.reuters.com/jeh68v) The Wall Street Journal had earlier reported that Mt. Gox had given up plans to rebuild under bankruptcy protection and had asked a Tokyo court to allow it to be liquidated. The investor group, which offered to take over the assets of Mt. Gox and revive it, has received backing from many creditors and hopes to convince the court to reconsider their rehabilitation proposal, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. (http://r.reuters.com/keh68v) Mt. Gox, once the world's biggest bitcoin exchange, has about 127,000 creditors. The exchange filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan in February, saying it may have lost nearly half a billion dollars worth of the virtual coins due to hacking. (Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) (This story corrects date of story to April 17 from April 18)