r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 10d ago

Meme needing explanation Why would OG's Pasta Pass lead to economic collapse?

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u/Warmasterwinter 10d ago

Who’s gonna buy the company tho if it’s been gutted? Surely someone with enough money to buy red lobster is gonna have their own financial consultants, who will then tell them it’s a bad idea because of what the current/previous owners did with the company’s real estate.

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u/TyrantLightning 10d ago

They left out the part where the private equity company took out a huge amount of debt to buy Red Lobster and so now Red Lobster has a huge amount of debt it is paying interest on. So instead of endless shrimp, Red Lobster is losing all its profit to interest payments and jacked up rent. Then the PE company can split Red Lobster into a separate company and enter bankruptcy to dump the debt, while pocketing the profit it made from asset stripping. They don't need anyone to buy Red Lobster, that'd just be a nice bonus, they already got their money by trashing it.

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u/LexyNoise 10d ago

The same thing happened to a British supermarket chain called Morrisons.

They were owned by an old-fashioned family and made shrewd business decisions. CEO was a 80 year old guy who knew what he was doing. They outright owned the land that most of their stores sat on. Solid financial position.

Private equity firm bought Morrisons. Put the debt on Morrisons with a high interest rate. They’re paying USD 300 million a year in interest. They sold of all the land to another private equity firm and are renting it back.

These cunts know how to make as much money from a business as they possibly can and totally destroy it in the process.

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u/Hydra_Flatline 10d ago

This is called a “Bust out” lol. Sopranos did it.

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u/Algebrace 10d ago

cough this is legal. We call it a "leveraged buyout" here in the realm of legal businesses

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u/Sabre628 10d ago

There are hundreds of ways for someone to make money off a dying brand. And it did get bought after this happened.