Private equity firms routinely buy beloved legacy companies like Toys R Us, load them up with billions of dollars in toxic debt, strip them of their valuable real estate assets, and then force them into bankruptcy.

A closer look

Private equity firms routinely buy beloved legacy companies like Toys R Us, load them up with billions of dollars in toxic debt, strip them of their valuable real estate assets, and then force them into bankruptcy. The Wall Street executives walk away with massive management fees and guaranteed payouts while tens of thousands of regular retail employees lose their jobs and their severance packages. They refer to this ghoulish practice as corporate restructuring, but it is functionally just legalized financial vampirism. They essentially buy a profitable company, force it to take out a massive loan to pay the new owners, and then leave the bloated corpse of the business to rot