Toys R Us Sold $11.5 Billion a Year. Then Debt Killed It.

Toys R Us sold about $11.5 billion in its last annual report and still lost money. The company owed about $4.8 billion, and interest alone was about $455 million a year, roughly $1.2 million every day. Here is the story, stage by stage, from the company's own filings and press reports. CHAPTERS 0:00 Hook 0:37 Stage 1 · The machine 1:22 Stage 2 · The buyout 1:50 Stage 3 · The interest 2:37 Stage 4 · The shift 3:18 Stage 5 · The squeeze 3:58 Stage 6 · The bankruptcy 4:50 Stage 7 · Who got paid 5:40 The lesson SOURCES Toys "R" Us 10-K, fiscal 2016 (SEC): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Fiscal 2016 results (PR Newswire): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-relea... CNBC, Sep 18 2017: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/18/toys-... National Law Review, Sep 19 2017: https://natlawreview.com/article/toys... Entrepreneur, Mar 2018: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/... Claims Journal, Mar 16 2020: https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/na... Bloomberg, Sep 19 2017: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl... Fortune, Sep 2017: https://fortune.com/2017/09/18/toys-r... OUR CALCULATIONS 57% = $455M net interest / $792M adjusted EBITDA (the company defines adjusted EBITDA) ~$1.2M per day = $455M / 365 Notes: the 2005 buyout price is reported as about $6.6B by CNBC and the National Law Review (Bloomberg says $7.5B). The 2020 lawsuit figures are claims by a creditors' trust, not court findings; the named parties deny wrongdoing. Liquidation details come from press reports. There was no fiscal 2017 annual report, so "last annual report" means fiscal 2016. Educational content, not financial advice. Not affiliated with Toys R Us or any company mentioned.