Toys R Us Shutting Down

A true end of an era as 70 year old Toys R Us is shutting down world wide, selling off its assets over the next coming months. Some form of it may survive as negotiations are ongoing for some stores but the business multiple generations of kids grew up with will cease to exist, likely by the beginning of the summer. The cause is varied but primarily it can be placed at the feet of Bain Capital that makes profits by destroying companies after saddlings them with far more debt then they can handle or ever dig themselves out from. TRU went from $50 of million in debt in early 2005, sold to be Bain which drove that number to around $5.5 billion in that same year. The economics fails me but the net result is the company had not means of expanding, updating its stores, exploring new business models or anything else. Finally after 12 years, saddled with even more debt despite over 15 years of over of solid multi-billion years of sales, the company simply couldn't survive under the load. Its a sad day. The only year takeaway is if you know your company is owned by Bain Capital, look for an exist strategy as that company is exists to destroy.