Stephen Hazelton is the founder and CEO of Street Diligence (full bio below) talks about the decline of Toys R Us which he believes was due to a too high debt load coming from the leveraged buyout a few years ago. Additionally, with Amazon in the industry (AKA Amazon crushing all competitors), Toys R Us was unable to meet the cash flow to pay off the high prior debt load, and was unable to reinvest capital in aging stores, which made them less and less competitive. Stephen thinks that Amazon could make further gains into the Toys industry as a result of the situation. The podcast gets deep into debt financing of Toys R Us with the Delaware Inc subsidiary of the toy company. But Stephen explains the situation in a clear language that even our equity focused readers will understand! Additionally, we have an important lesson related to confidentiality and how it can destroy a company - beware journalists!
Youu can listen to this interview below on
Per Street Diligence's website
Stephen founded Street Diligence in 2012 and has two decades of experience in global financial markets as both an entrepreneur and investor. Prior to starting Street Diligence, Stephen was Managing Director of Savoy Capital, an investment firm and family office, where he led the firm’s investment activities. He is a second-time entrepreneur, having previously founded Stafford Group, a Vietnam-based brokerage firm still in operation today under new ownership. Stephen is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and the credit markets. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an MBA from MIT Sloan, where he was awarded the Peter Englander Fellowship.
