“For politicians seeking broad support, private equity has become an easy target. The investment firms that do business by buying up companies and loading them with debt have been criticized for rewarding themselves with dividends while the businesses they own go under. Private equity firms were at the forefront of the so-called “retail apocalypse,” which saw the destruction of many of the country’s beloved retailers.
Private equity’s hold on the retail industry solidified in the mid-2000s, when firms swarmed, lured in by a combination of low interest rates, recognizable brand names and the view that retailers’ steady cash flow would continue indefinitely.
But the debt load firms placed on those retailers left them hamstrung. When digital commerce permanently altered the retail industry, the companies had no capacity to make investments in technology and in their stores that were needed to compete against Amazon.”
Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/18/the-link-between-warrens-attack-on-private-equity-and-toys-r-us.html