Golden Gate Capital

I thought you're only allowed one bankruptcy and you're done.

So I wonder if this is because I think what we will see happen now and just to go into some of the history so they went they had a first they had one of the first patented down jackets in 1963 the everest team uh and then they became a uh mall casual wear brand um and then they went they were owner owned by general mills which seems bizarre like i think that's a cereal brand They were owned by Spiegel, Golden Gate Capital, Authentic, Spark, Catalyst, and now Outdoor 5.

And each owner inherited the last owner's decisions.

So what we're saying is, what it feels like has happened is they almost just gave up on the customers at some point.

Correct.

And just like when the Connecticut commissioner, when PHL failed, before they fell, he went to Golden Gate Capital and begged them to put money in.

If you don't put money in, your policyholders are going to be hurt.

And they said, no, thank you.

I don't have enough details on Red Lobster's financials to know for sure, but I have to imagine at this point that they're basically on the verge of bankruptcy, and Thai Union used this as an opportunity to increase their ownership and control of Red Lobster.

Along with some other investors, Thai Union formed the Seafood Alliance, and together bought the remaining 51% of the company from Golden Gate Capital for an undisclosed amount.

This meant that Thai Union effectively now had complete control over the company, and it didn't take them long to start making some major changes.

They completely reshaped the people who were running the company.

Now, what I want to know is where the cash went.

So with Red Lobster, we know that in 2014, a private equity firm called Golden Gate Capital bought Red Lobster from Darden for $2.1 billion.

And Now, in that same deal, the real estate under more than 500 of the restaurants was sold to a real estate company for about $1.5 billion.

And Darden's own announcement said that the money was helping to pay for the purchase.

Things started changing with Red Lobster.

Golden Gate Capital, which is private equity, buys Red Lobster from Darden in 2014.

Golden Gate Capital at the time owned California Pizza Kitchen and Bob Evans.

What was going on back then was Darden had some hedge fund investors and they were getting a lot of pressure to sell.

That's the thing, man.

We're in a lot of trouble.

So you can see things started going bad.

So Golden Gate Capital owns it, 2014.