Basically, the company had to pay for its own buyout when private equity firms KKL, Vornado, and Bain bought the company for $6.6 billion, mostly with loans.
Because the company then had to pay off those extreme loans, they were forced to sell off their assets and property, which they leased back from the very private equity firms that now owned them.
The same thing happened more recently with Red Lobster and JoAnn Fabrics.
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.
Often private equity is invested in their competitors. One of the problems of rich people having ungodly sums is they like to “invest” in competitors and sell them for parts so they can raise prices.