On: The United States of Bed Bath & Beyond

[Ozzie_osman]

Bust out 1 and 2 are basically the Private Equity playbook. Buy a company, take on debt, buy-back stock. If possible, extract extra fees.

There's a book called Plunder that does a great job going into more detail on this model.

[fisherjeff → Ozzie_osman]

Yeah, this is just debt recapitalization. And it can totally work! But it often (usually?) backfires spectacularly.

[mschuster91 → fisherjeff]

> But it often (usually?) backfires spectacularly.

Indeed, with oftentimes massive cost to creditors (banks, employees, vendors, landlords, unemployment insurance schemes, taxpayers).

I wonder why such schemes haven't been banned yet, or what kind of catastrophe it needs to push regulators into action.