How Red Lobster became a tenant in its own restaurants
A 2014 property sale helped finance the takeover. The restaurants became tenants with continuing lease obligations.
Read Red Lobster →Investigations into the deals behind familiar businesses.
Find a company or owner →Who got paid when Toys “R” Us went broke?
Toys used its own cash to help pay for its purchase, then paid sponsor organizations for advice. Follow the acquisition, the Christmas supplier crisis and the different accounts left after the U.S. chain closed.
Enter the investigationToys “R” Us reported $81m paid to sponsors for financing services and expenses in the 2005 transaction. Follow the documents ↗
Where did the ambulances go after Nashoba Valley closed?
The hospital closed in August 2024. State records show changing destinations and longer regional transport times, years after Cerberus gave up control.
Read Steward Health Care →How Hilton retired $1.8bn of debt for $819m
Hilton reduced debt by about $4 billion in 2010. One part used $819 million of parent equity to retire $1.8 billion of debt.
Read Hilton →The Graveyard
Documented closures, bankruptcies and the owners at the time.
Explore the collection →The Zombie Tent
The brand returned. Find out what survived of the business.
Enter the collection →A selected collection, not a census of private-equity outcomes.
Find a familiar name
How the deals work
How can a company end up paying for its own purchase? →What changes when a business sells its buildings and rents them back? →How can an owner also collect fees from the company? →How can owners receive a dividend funded by new borrowing? →New reporting
The investigations follow contractual payments, distinguish investors from advisers, and separate a business’s financial history from its later owners.
Read about Colorado’s challenge to an anesthesia group serving 16 hospitals →
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