Toys R US looking at bankruptcy filing

[Michlady]

......

 

[Michchamp]

not sure if you can put this one on Brandon, directly at least.

Toys R' Us is owned by a bunch of leveraged-buyout/private equity firms (here: Bain, KKR, & Vornado).

their con is well established: 1) find mildly profitable publicly traded company; 2) cobble together just enough to buy up controlling stake in company's stock; 3) force the company to take out as big of a loan as possible, and use this to pay yourself a "dividend" or "management fee" for your "expertise"; and finally 4) go away and leave the company to declare bankruptcy, screwing all its workers and any minority shareholders left. there you have it: legalized piracy.

sometimes you have to sweeten the deal for current executives, so as part of stage 3), you have to cut them into the profiteering. Maybe Brandon was their hatchet guy to begin with(?) though? he did enter the picture kinda late in the process.

 

[Michlady]

Definitely not in Brandon. troubles started a decade ago

 

[biggunsbob]

I'm sure Brandon won't be hurting like all the little people when everything is said and done.

 

[wlvrnstlr4life]

Still go there with the kids. Too bad all our childhood stuff is going kaput. I was watching Dawn of the Dead(1978) the other night and all the stores that used to be at the mall brought back memories. When JCPennys was just Pennys. When Pennys used to carry high end clothing. Things have changed a crapload in 40yrs. Soon there will be no malls and no stores to walk around at.

Fat lazy american worker, lol

 

[Spartanmack]

not sure if you can put this one on Brandon, directly at least.

Toys R' Us is owned by a bunch of leveraged-buyout/private equity firms (here: Bain, KKR, & Vornado).

their con is well established: 1) find mildly profitable publicly traded company; 2) cobble together just enough to buy up controlling stake in company's stock; 3) force the company to take out as big of a loan as possible, and use this to pay yourself a "dividend" or "management fee" for your "expertise"; and finally 4) go away and leave the company to declare bankruptcy, screwing all its workers and any minority shareholders left. there you have it: legalized piracy.

sometimes you have to sweeten the deal for current executives, so as part of stage 3), you have to cut them into the profiteering. Maybe Brandon was their hatchet guy to begin with(?) though? he did enter the picture kinda late in the process.

those private equity firms kept Toys R Us alive for another 13 years and counting. Toys R Us was not a "mildly profitable company". It was a completely bankrupt company that was on the verge of being completely shut down sometime in 2004. At the time, most thought it was going to be shut down and its massive real estate holding were going to be thrown into a REIT (that was all the rage among the event driven investment community before reverse mergers became the hot new thing).

Toys R Us was a horribly flawed business model that wasn't going to survive the shift in commerce that was transforming huge parts of the economy. It used to be that they could operate at a loss for 11 months and then turn a profit off of Christmas sales in December. But along came WalMart who could have 1 toy aisle in a massive store for 10.5 months then triple or quadruple floor space for toys at Christmas time and sell toys for WAY less than Toys R Us could. Then along came the internet and pummeled Toys R Us even further.

Toys R Us is not a victim of piracy, it's an antiquated business model that can't compete and if not for the private equity buyout, those workers would have been out of work 13 years ago, so maybe instead of condeming them, they and people like you should be thanking them for the jobs they wouldn't have had without them. Or at least just shut the hell up about things they don't understand.

 

[Michchamp]

those private equity firms kept Toys R Us alive for another 13 years and counting. Toys R Us was not a "mildly profitable company". It was a completely bankrupt company that was on the verge of being completely shut down sometime in 2004. At the time, most thought it was going to be shut down and its massive real estate holding were going to be thrown into a REIT (that was all the rage among the event driven investment community before reverse mergers became the hot new thing).

Toys R Us was a horribly flawed business model that wasn't going to survive the shift in commerce that was transforming huge parts of the economy. It used to be that they could operate at a loss for 11 months and then turn a profit off of Christmas sales in December. But along came WalMart who could have 1 toy aisle in a massive store for 10.5 months then triple or quadruple floor space for toys at Christmas time and sell toys for WAY less than Toys R Us could. Then along came the internet and pummeled Toys R Us even further.

Toys R Us is not a victim of piracy, it's an antiquated business model that can't compete and if not for the private equity buyout, those workers would have been out of work 13 years ago, so maybe instead of condeming them, they and people like you should be thanking them for the jobs they wouldn't have had without them. Or at least just shut the hell up about things they don't understand.

so... private equity firms are more like charities that keep "antiquated" failing business models running just so workers can keep their jobs?

thanks for setting me straight.

 

[Spartanmack]

so... private equity firms are more like charities that keep "antiquated" failing business models running just so workers can keep their jobs?

thanks for setting me straight.

you can read into it whatever you like, your logical fallacies don't change the facts here nor do they make you any less wrong - they just confirm your ignorance and inability to accept the truth.

 

[biggunsbob]

you can read into it whatever you like, your logical fallacies don't change the facts here nor do they make you any less wrong - they just confirm your ignorance and inability to accept the truth.

13 years ago or today it doesn't make it any less harmful for the employees that will not be part of and what top management gets in the end, Cobra insurance is unaffordable for most employees today. Until we have national Healthcare these type stories will continue on and on in this flawed system we live in. Hopefully the wave has stared and Medicare for all will be the law within 10 years. Because like always republicans have ZERO plan for the American people.

 

[Spartanmack]

13 years ago or today it doesn't make it any less harmful for the employees that will not be part of and what top management gets in the end, Cobra insurance is unaffordable for most employees today. Until we have national Healthcare these type stories will continue on and on in this flawed system we live in. Hopefully the wave has stared and Medicare for all will be the law within 10 years. Because like always republicans have ZERO plan for the American people.

you're blaming private equity investors for the cost of COBRA? and keeping people employed 13 years longer than they otherwise would have been does in fact make a difference - a MASSIVE difference. And when we have nationalized healthcare, we'll have these problems and more and bigger problems on top of them. It's clearly not true that Republicans have zero plan, but even if it were true, I'd take no plan other than full unwind of Obamacare over Medicare for all any day of the week.

 

[biggunsbob]

you're blaming private equity investors for the cost of COBRA? and keeping people employed 13 years longer than they otherwise would have been does in fact make a difference - a MASSIVE difference. And when we have nationalized healthcare, we'll have these problems and more and bigger problems on top of them. It's clearly not true that Republicans have zero plan, but even if it were true, I'd take no plan other than full unwind of Obamacare over Medicare for all any day of the week.

It dosnt matter who is at fault for how high Cobra is if we had national coverage it would be one less worry for families struggling to find new jobs and to put food on the table. Becaue paying cobra and paying your monthly bills is near impossible without assistance .
You know and it is fact that republicans have done everything in thier power to stop Obama care from working instead of working togther and fixing the parts that need to be fixed. It's laughable how you think . All the bills and obstruction that the Gop did on healthcare is deplorable.

 

[Spartanmack]

then what exactly are you blaming the private equity investors for here?

no, I don't know and those aren't facts. What is a fact is health insurance is so expensive because of absurd regulations that kill competition and the "Affordable Care Act" has proven that with insurer after insurer pulling out of market after market because the of the cost. There aren't "things that need to be fixed". the whole terrible law needs to be scrapped. What's laughable is that you actually don't think - you just regurgitate nonsense, declare it a fact and the argument won. Giving more power to the people who ruined it in the first place won't make it more affordable.

 

[wlvrnstlr4life]

Junk the politics, everyone. The internet is killing companies plain and simple. We get better deals with the competition online. We see it at the store and we are like, "fuck that, I can get it cheaper." We all do it and we are all responsible. And sometimes, we are just lazy and dont want to walk around and look for shit. This is the world we live in.

 

[Spartanmack]

I agree with a lot of this except I think Toys R Us was doomed even before the internet because of the way WalMart eroded their Christmas profits with a more flexible brick and mortar model. There's nothing political about that - then we went off on a tangent about healthcare which is an argument that's been beat to death here - probably not worth having it again.

Edit: and I don't think anyone's "guilty" of anything - it's just people reacting rationally to an evolving market. Businesses evolve and change just like everything else and there are winners and losers. It's not evil to come up a better way to do things.

 

[biggunsbob]

Fuck Walmart and it's business model of paying it's workers crap and then having liiterature on how to get government services .. Pay a fucking livable wage fucking greedy ass Walton's!!!

 

[biggunsbob]

then what exactly are you blaming the private equity investors for here?

no, I don't know and those aren't facts. What is a fact is health insurance is so expensive because of absurd regulations that kill competition and the "Affordable Care Act" has proven that with insurer after insurer pulling out of market after market because the of the cost. There aren't "things that need to be fixed". the whole terrible law needs to be scrapped. What's laughable is that you actually don't think - you just regurgitate nonsense, declare it a fact and the argument won. Giving more power to the people who ruined it in the first place won't make it more affordable.

Yeah becaue most giant corporations pay a liveable wage. They try and get away with so much shit it's not even funny the greedy Bastard .. Yeah oh by the way let them self regulate to!!! wink wink lol... give me a break. Most large corporations are Just as bad as the large pharmaceutical industry criminals!!! Fuck them all.

Oh BTW with Trump in power they will probably ask to cut the tax rate to 5% because you know they want to pay thier workers more lol!!!! Yeah right !!!

 

[wlvrnstlr4life]

Fuck Walmart and it's business model of payinformation it's workers crap and then having liiterature on how to get government services .. Pay a fucking livable wage fucking greedy ass Walton's!!!

With all due respect Bob, Hillary and her buds had a lot to do with how Walmart handled some of their practices. She was on their board of directors for 6 years. I'm not saying who's right and who's wrong, but when we put politics into things, it can get a bit murky because all of our political powers are out to make cash and cash only. People bitch about how companies make their profits. The big picture is that everyone in Congress and the Senate and the White House are all out to help someone that helps put money in their pocket. It doesn't matter who is running the show. You pick your horses that are going to make you money. Sometimes those horses work for both sides.......that's why nothing gets done!!

 

[biggunsbob]

With all due respect Bob, Hillary and her buds had a lot to do with how Walmart handled some of their practices. She was on their board of directors for 6 years. I'm not saying who's right and who's wrong, but when we put politics into things, it can get a bit murky because all of our political powers are out to make cash and cash only. People bitch about how companies make their profits. The big picture is that everyone in Congress and the Senate and the White House are all out to help someone that helps put money in their pocket. It doesn't matter who is running the show. You pick your horses that are going to make you money. Sometimes those horses work for both sides.......that's why nothing gets done!!

And I have never said that both sides don't have a lot of blame to go around but unbridled unbound capitalism where all out greed is the answer just leaves normal people crushed. Let's cut even more regulation and really see what happens like trump wants to do . It's a freaking joke . I firmly believe one party is way worse then the other party but the lefty's have thier issues too. Not all regulation is a bad thing, and I never said not to make as much as you can but when you fuck normal people buy paying a shitty wages like walmart does i have isues with it.
The systematic right wing destruction of unions has crushed this country . The Fox News propaganda machine started in the 90's with fear has been ever present since..Right to work states!!! lmao .. You mean the right to fire without just cause. Go ahead republicans privatize everything like you want too and really fuck everyone...
No one on this board will change my mind the country would be in much better shape with a Healthcare system that is a right from birth till death. Sadly politicians just do not care about people who struggle. We know which party really dosnt want healthcare reform. At least one party tried..

 

[Mitchrapp]

I worked at Toy's R Us many years ago.. My theory is they had trouble when Amazon hit it big. I remember one year I ordered Christmas presents for my nephews way back when.. They were so backlogged that, even my order from when I made the purchase in November, missed the mark.

Next year I hear about Amazon and started ordering from them..

 

[hungry]

I think you guys are on the wrong board