• Pacattack57@lemmy.world
    9·
    20 hours ago

    This is unironically what people do. They buy businesses, sell all the assets, pay themselves exorbitant bonuses for having a profitable quarter from selling all the assets and then sell the business. After someone buys it it’s like a 60% bankruptcy rate post sale.

    • TomasEkeli@programming.dev
      4·
      20 hours ago

      And then other businesses that have “too good” numbers buy those failing businesses and let them go bankrupt to use as larger write-offs and get tax rebates.

  • Seaguy05@lemmy.world
    20·
    1 day ago

    Isn’t this the exact plan for all private equity acquisitions. The most recent one coming to mind was the fabric store Joann’s. PE came in bought the company, saddled it with their debt used to buy it, strip mined it, and then declared bankruptcy.

  • Mac@mander.xyzEnglish
    111·
    2 days ago

    Spend lots
    Go into debt
    Buy successful company
    Load it with your debt
    File (it) for bankruptcy
    Make out like a bandit

    Rinse, repeat

    • AreaKode@riskeratspizza.com
      48·
      2 days ago

      Buy up everything and then default on our loans? Yup. If they aren’t trying, their incompetence is actually pretty impressive.

      • IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com
        12·
        2 days ago

        We are trying to outsource our debt to china.

        Its all games. I don’t thing people that care are ready for how fucked up humanity is going to get. But worse than that, I don’t think many care.

        “They” have humanity by the balls.

        And damn… Like I said… I don’t think people understand… All these people we called terrorists might have been trying to save us.

        • Art3mis@lemmy.world
          2·
          1 day ago

          “might” is doing a lot of work there. A huge amount of “terrorists” are doing exactly that

    • notabot@piefed.socialEnglish
      55·
      2 days ago

      Set up a shell company. Set up a trust somewhere with no capital gain tax. Shift ownership of the shell to the trust. As the shell, come to an agreement in principal with the bank to buy it. Use this as colateral to raise a loan from the bank for the purchase amount. Transfer the debt to the bank as part of the merger with the shell company. The bank now basically owes itself to itself. Sell the combined company from the trust, thus avoiding capital gain tax.

      • Zwiebel@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        22 hours ago

        Employee is a nerd who knows you don’t have the power cable plugged in

        Loan declined

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    17·
    2 days ago

    It’s not actually ridiculous in principle.

    Let’s say I start out owning a bank with ten billion in assets, and the bank’s value comes entirely from its assets so it’s worth ten billion.

    The bank loans its ten billion to you, and you pay me those ten billion for the bank. Now I have ten billion in cash instead of a bank that was worth ten billion, and you have a bank worth ten billion to which you owe ten billion. No one’s net worth has changed.

    You default on your loan to your own bank. Now the bank is worthless (its worth came entirely from the loan) and you have no debt, so your net worth still hasn’t changed. Effectively nothing has happened.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      2 days ago

      The bank loans its ten billion to you

      A bank that’s subject to government regulation isn’t going to do that unless “you” have billions in assets to justify that kind of sale.

      and you pay me those ten billion for the bank

      And surely you report that sale on your taxes and pay the relevant taxes, right?

      No one’s net worth has changed.

      Except you, once you’ve paid your taxes.

      You default on your loan to your own bank.

      Ok, so “you” missed the payment. Now what? You think “you” can walk away cleanly? Declaring bankruptcy to wipe your debt is only something that’s available if the government provides that kind of mechanism, and generally that’s only available to people who have otherwise followed all the rules, which wouldn’t include buying a ten billion dollar bank when they had no assets.

      The only way this scenario works is if you ignore all the laws. But, if you’re ignoring the laws, why not just make it simpler and simply steal the bank’s assets?

    • zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      2 days ago

      Except that there is also value from other clients and from the brand, which is then helping you to actually earn money

    • marcos@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 days ago

      Effectively nothing has happened.

      A lot of people lost a lot of their money and got their lives destroyed. Also, the previous owners liquidated their shares.

      But yeah, you haven’t got any richer.

    • stickyprimer@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 days ago

      nothing has happened

      Right, which is why it’s not some hero-swaggers-triumphantly maneuver. That’s the ridiculous part.

  • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
    6·
    2 days ago

    1. aquire money trough established capitalist social network

    2. Buy a successful small businesses with employees included.

    3. Run it trough the ground to extract all profit and value of to recover the money used to buy it

    4. You barely made money on this but you are “famous company” and they where just an obstacle for your competing products who are making more now.

    5. Repeat