this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2025
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Today I Learned

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Basically, the company had to pay for its own buyout when private equity firms KKL, Vornado, and Bain bought the company for $6.6 billion, mostly with loans.

Because the company then had to pay off those extreme loans, they were forced to sell off their assets and property, which they leased back from the very private equity firms that now owned them.

The same thing happened more recently with Red Lobster and JoAnn Fabrics.

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[–] maxxadrenaline@lemmy.world 8 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

They told US TARGET killed Geoffrery!!!

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[–] Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 76 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

The fact that they can buy a company by going into debt and immediately transfer the debt to the company is fucking insane. Maybe we need to figure out how we as individuals can do that and just fucking crash the lending industry entirely? Can I make my house buy itself for me and then "whoopsie, the house can't pay the bills, guess it will file for bankruptcy and hand me a big ol' stack of cash".

[–] groet@feddit.org 31 points 10 hours ago (6 children)

That's how landlords work.

Take loan, buy houses, house has to pay back loan via rent, rent is paid for by renter.

Landlord gets house for free, everything paid by renter.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 hours ago

And the same thing happens to banks for people with mortgages.

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[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 11 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

They will never, ever give us equal rules willingly. The only way that's going to happen is if we build a new financial system, immune to their Pinkertons and police.

[–] barryamelton@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

You will not build a new financial system without structures of power. The best we can do is to understand the structures of power and how to combat them.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 hours ago

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

— Buckminster Fuller

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 1 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Structures of power... You mean "guillotines"?

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[–] SippyCup@lemmy.ml 18 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

I'm not going to say exactly what it would take, but it rhymes with Bolotov Cocktail

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[–] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 48 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

The actions taken by private equity companies seem very similar to those taken by organized crime syndicates when THEY take over a business

Odd, don't you think?

[–] niktemadur@lemmy.world 16 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Like in Goodfellas, cannibalizing their own community. Embezzle and steal everything you can, then torch the place for the insurance.

But in Goodfellas, the owner of the restaurant approaches the mafia and asks Paulie to "be a partner", so he can get Tommy to stop terrorizing the place AND running up tabs he has no intention of paying.

Imagine some short mafia type with a Napoleon complex walking around the Toys R Us aisles, knocking merchandise off the shelves while harassing kids and their mothers.

I betcha the equity firms approach with a silk tongue and Wall St technobabble jabberwocky. I know those CEO business types, the read their CEO magazines chock full of pseudoscience articles like, for example, determining a personality type via their handwriting style, the hooks and curves of their calligraphy. Corporate astrology, just as gullible to fancy jargon as the proverbial Man Down The Street.

[–] SupahRevs@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Nah. They have deluded themselves with ideas of "rescuing" the company. But they protect themselves financially first. Then they don't have the awareness to show that a business could have just made 1-2% a year forever instead of selling off assets for a chance at 4Xing their investment. They think its how life works. Take the big risk and never consider the costs as long as your ass is covered.

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[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 33 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Time to kill private equity…..with crippling regulation and accountability of course

[–] ghen@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Nah just make the rich people pay their taxes. Then they won't have money for stupid shit like this

[–] F_State@midwest.social 1 points 6 hours ago

One of the reasons they have so much money is the financial trickery that private equity employs

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago

Not when you live in a country where private equity basically owns the government.

[–] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 171 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (35 children)

below is a reply to a comment I made below, pasting here as I find it crazy how this went down and is allowed.

For those curious I did a little digging. I’m on mobile so won’t be going in and out to add company names etc.

Basically, the private equity firms got together and said let’s buy Toy R Us for $6.6B but we only want to use say 300M of our own money and get a loan for the rest.

Then they bought Toys R Us but made them sell all assets to equity firms which then leased them back to Toys R Us so they could pay back the loans. This means Toys R Us are paying hundreds of million a year to cover loans and can’t put that money into making a better business.

The private equity firms also made Toys R Us issue dividends in the hundreds of millions so private equity can make money.

In the end private equity walked away with over $1B in profit whilst Toys R Us declared bankruptcy with $5B still left to pay.

What a fucking insane system. Like how many people lost their jobs so these ghouls could make some extra cash off its downfall.

And people think I’m crazy for making my life harder by not shopping at places like Amazon or being a pirate and not giving money to Netflix etc.

I feel I am living in crazy land. Like the Uk has all our pensions and shit tied to the damn stock market, ensuring we can never really leave this system.

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

In a sane world that would be life in prison illegal.

Sadly we live in crazy town.

Wait until you hear about using shorts to drive a company out of business or stock buy backs.

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 55 points 15 hours ago (8 children)

Sweet jesus. How is this not some kind of hyper mega ultra fraud?

[–] F_State@midwest.social 3 points 6 hours ago

Because bankers buy politicians and if people complain they buy news coverage to call the naysayers socialists

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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 74 points 14 hours ago

A victim of the good ol leveraged buyout which should be fucking illegal right alongside stock buybacks.

[–] Juice@midwest.social 13 points 11 hours ago

DOGE used this same model on the US government.

Capitalism is not rational

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

Also pensions, airlines, and restaurants.

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[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Leveraged buyout is insane and should be so very very illegal.

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Let them leverage but they have to pay it back. None of this transfer the loan shit.

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