It still exists here in Japan for some reason!!
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Yeah, the term "venture capitalist" is very negative in my mind because of how they destroy companies from the inside out to profit themselves. Fuck them.
More like vulture capitalist.
Pretty much nothing in "the economy" works like it does in theory. It's always way more complex so the people with the most power and money can squeeze more exploitation out of it. I really like how this guy explains it
https://www.facebook.com/reel/976701137942045
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/1LcJjd6Wosw
He's got a whole series on Private Equity
I think that's the natural outcome. that's the emergent behaviour of capitalism.
those with more money have more power and more influence to make the system better for those with money and power.
the rest, like almost all "economics" its just BS to hide that simple fact.
I live in the area the HQ used to be. I know a lot of middle management who got screwed very hard by these guys.
I think Kmart and Sears are in this list, too, along with Bed, Bath, and Beyond and even some hospitals. There's nothing private equity forms won't do to make a buck at the expense of a once thriving company or even people's healthcare.
DOGE used this same model on the US government.
Capitalism is not rational
I generally feel like leveraged buyouts for numbers into the billions are just inside jobs for those selling.
Stay with me for a sec.
So the seller makes a closed door deal with the "buyer" to funnel money back to them personally after the sale is done. So in this case, say, they commit 3.6bn to the "buyers" and pocket 3bn for themselves. Almost the entire purchase is leveraged, with the expectation that it will become unsustainable and go bankrupt shortly after the purchase.
The buyers don't really give a shit, they'll write it off, collect whatever they can from insurance, etc. They didn't really want to company anyways, so they let it fold.
The money they took home from the deal with the seller is entirely theirs, the company bears the weight of the debt and the consequences of defaulting on the debt, so the execs that made the move are basically free and clear.
Everyone wins, except, you know, the poors who work at the purchased company, the banks, who don't give a shit, and insurance people, which... Nobody gives a fuck about them...
At the end of the day, the execs of the purchasing company get rich, the sellers get rich, and that's the fucking point.
If the sellers instead just closed up shop, they would get maybe a fraction of the money they would from selling it, mainly in selling off assets... It would be a pittance compared to this scheme.
All they need to do is find someone they can buy out the morals of, to complete the deal. This is surprisingly easy in the corpo world.
I spent weeks waiting in line at my TRU for a switch and they sold out of it and every game every day. The day after I finally got mine and BOTW, they closed the store.
They were making hand over fist money when they closed
Same with Sears, right?
Picked apart by vultures for all that prime store and warehouse real estate they owned by virtue of having been around since the 19th century.
Why did they have to pay off the loans that were used to buy them? That’s something the buyer should be responsible for.
Probably because the C suite assholes who negotiated the buyout agreed to place the burden of the loan on their own company and shaft their employees. It's basic capitalism, really.
The exact workings im not familiar with but it's called "leveraged buyout" where the net worth of the firm which is bought is the collateral.
So .. you buy firm A with money you lended. When the sale gors through all belongings of firm A are yours! So you sell them off, you know what? You want to make a profit so you sell EVERYTHING.
Now firm A is but a husk of it's former self. So now is the time to put it in some holding company or something. Now the husk of firm A is indebted to you.
Oh noes! It goes bankrupt! With your investment firm as the biggest lender to it!
Toy R Us is still a thing in Canada, you can just go there and get your kid legos like its 2002