> When KKR buys Toys“R”Us or when Carlyle buys the nursing home chain ManorCare, the debt is held by the company that they bought
That right there is what should be made illegal. Somehow. There's probably all sorts of technicalities wherein KKR didn't buy it directly, but as the majority of the board of TRU, authorized the self-purchase or something like that. But you shouldn't be able to force a company to essentially buy itself, pay you a lot of fees to do so, then fuck off while it drowns in the debt you forced on it.
If you have authority over something, you are also responsible for it. Both the good and the bad.
That right there is what should be made illegal. Somehow. There's probably all sorts of technicalities wherein KKR didn't buy it directly, but as the majority of the board of TRU, authorized the self-purchase or something like that. But you shouldn't be able to force a company to essentially buy itself, pay you a lot of fees to do so, then fuck off while it drowns in the debt you forced on it.
If you have authority over something, you are also responsible for it. Both the good and the bad.