Toys ‘R’ Us Champion Puts $100 Million Toward Long-Shot Bid
(Bloomberg) -- The head of the company that created Bratz dolls and Little Tikes is putting $100 million toward a long-shot bid to save Toys “R” Us.
MGA Entertainment Inc. Chief Executive Officer Isaac Larian is aiming to buy the toy-store company's assets as part of an investment group that includes a crowd-funding campaign. He said it's his own money on the line, and MGA isn't part of the bid. If he's successful, the executive expects that 200 to 400 U.S. stores can be saved.
“There is a lot of value in the Toys ‘R' Us name, a lot of value in all the assets that they have,” Larian said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “If Toys ‘R' Us is not here, I think the toy business as a whole will have a devastating year -- this year and the following year.”
Larian's push to help the toy retailer survive liquidation includes a bid that a group of investors made for the Canadian assets of Toys “R” Us last week. He and other investors also launched a campaign on GoFundMe for the purchase of U.S. assets from the company. Their goal is to raise $1 billion by Memorial Day.
The bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation of Toys “R” Us has bludgeoned toymakers, which stand to lose a key distribution channel and platform to test new products. Mattel Inc.'s stock has lost about 47 percent of its value in the last 12 months, with Hasbro Inc. slipping more than 14 percent over the same period. MGA, based in Van Nuys, California, is privately held.
Amazon.com Inc. is also said to be considering buying some of the stores in a move to expand its retail footprint and showcase hardware like the Echo line of devices. The liquidating company filed for bankruptcy in September and has struggled to find bidders for other assets.
Toys “R” Us has about $5 billion of outstanding debt -- a fact that has complicated efforts to rescue the chain. The debt load is the legacy of a leveraged buyout in 2005 in which Bain Capital, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust took the retailer private.
To contact the reporter on this story: Justina Vasquez in New York at jvasquez57@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nick Turner at nturner7@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Roeder
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
