I’ve said it many times, I hate private equity companies.  They’re a bunch of leeches that suck off the system and Toys R Us is an excellent example.

Less attention was paid to the albatross that Bain, KKR, and Vornado had placed around the company’s neck. Toys “R” Us had a debt load of $1.86 billion before it was bought out. Immediately after the deal, it shouldered more than $5 billion in debt. And though sales had slumped before the deal, they held relatively steady after it, even when the Great Recession hit. The company generated $11.2 billion in sales in the 12 months before the deal; in the 12 months before November 2017, it generated $11.1 billion.

Source: The Atlantic

The company was bought by private equity, immediately leveraged to its max so these vampires got their money back and left the company to service the debt.  It was profitable when it declared bankruptcy but couldn’t handle all the debt so it went under.  Absolutely disgusting the idiotic system of finance we have in place.