Seems like Verizon and Toys R Us have similar fates. The toy chain took on $6 billion in debt back it 2006 that it never recovered from:
http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/news/companies/toys-r-us-closing-blame/index.html
With Verizon buying wireless back in 2013 for $130 billion and still carries over $120 billion in debt, how long before it concedes?
Yahoo was a stupid purchase. Aol was a profitable company that could pay back the purchase price. Yahoo will end up making their whole advertising venture moot.
"Debt is acceptable until rates go up. VZ’s reaction should be interesting. I hear they are looking to buy Compuserve."
"Myspace" could be up for grabs too. Justin Timberlake bought them $35 Million in 2011, but I'm sure with some shrewd negotiating, Verizon could snag it for around $3 Billion.
Debt is acceptable until rates go up. VZ’s reaction should be interesting. I hear they are looking to buy Compuserve.
I don't feel bad at all. Should have grown the balls to destroy it himself a long time ago. There were plenty of people capable and eager to take the reigns - and couldn't. And now they don't have jobs. How do you make a toy store s---? Pour some beer for the next gen of kids who will grow up without toy stores.
Charles Lazarus, the founder of Toys-R-Us, died on Thursday at 94 years old, just a week after the company announced that it was shutting down U.S. operations. He founded Toys “R” Us 70 years ago when he was only 25 years old.
I think a broken heart may have been a contributing factor, watching his "baby", his life's work, die.
So sad.
The issues were the unnecessary purchases of Yahoo and AOL. This is why Marni got squeezed out. This is why my store that had 17 employees 3 years ago has 10 now. Gotta clear that 10 billion somewhere.
"The government would never let VZ go bankrupt. People can live without toys, but not their cell phones."
Verizon may not go bankrupt, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them sell themselves off into non-existence, the same way AT&T did.
As far as the government "not letting it happen". Canada allowed (encouraged?) Nortel, Canada's largest employer to go down in flames. And they did phones too.
Whoever thought Verizon should buy two bankrupt companies, AOL and Yahoo, and re-imagine themselves as a "media" company, should be shot on sight.
"We don't need to be an "actual" phone company -- we is a media company."
Absolute idiocy.
"Amazon....Walmart....Target.....killed toys R Us ......It was like having a Halloween costume store open 365 days a year"
Nope. A leveraged buyout killed Toys R Us. It was killed so Mitt Romney and his pals could get richer. Last year -- a down year -- Toys R Us still had 12% of the toy market. (The highest they ever had was 16%). In fact it was such a huge seller, the toy companies stock prices are dropping. They've even formed a coalition with the hope of keeping at least half of the Toys R Us stores open. Without the leveraged debt, Toys R Us would have made over half a billion dollars in profit last year (a down year for them).
I will miss Toys R Us (as I miss Caldors, Gimbles, Woolworths, Jahn's, Korvettes, Arthur Treacher's, Alexanders,... and, very soon, Sears) not only because of its nostalgic elements, but also because my child loved so much to go there, and it remains a shared memory of enjoyment for the two of us and, for her, enchantment.
That being said, and it was alluded to in the article, there wasn't much to draw a child there beyond the toy selection. I thought Toys R Us missed an obvious opportunity to be "an experience", to have something going on at all times that would entertain children, draw them in, and keep them coming back. I don't know, a trampoline? video games? teaming with and doubling as a daycare destination so parents were constantly trafficking the premises?
They also had the opportunity to retain young people as they grew by seizing upon the gaming arena, making it the go to place for products and advice, but others did it better.
@bub - wrong! Read the article dipstick!
Agreed Verizon has Debt.
We also have liability.
Miles upon endless miles of copper plant that no one uses.
It's bringing us down. We have to maintain an obsolete phone system. CLECS do not have that expense.
So who wins 10 years down the road.......
Amazon....Walmart....Target.....killed toys R Us ......It was like having a Halloween costume store open 365 days a year
Um, govt could use another carrier dillweed! I've been with wireless 17 yrs, I give it 3 or 4 max, wireless will be sold to another company and Verizon will sell advertising through oath .
Lmao 😂 Verizon will not end up like Toys R Us. NOPE. Its toys dude. TOYS. Verizon has government contracts. Politicians have verizon service. Try again man.
This was so insulting it made me laugh oit loud.
Debt is killing practically every major corporation. This story is much bigger than Toys R Us and VZ. Debt is how "The Recovery" was funded, so there was no true recovery, unless you consider an unemployed guy getting a 200K line of credit and living like a king for a few years a "Recovery."
In that case, there was a recovery, but in truth, there never was one.
The government would never let VZ go bankrupt. People can live without toys, but not their cell phones.