Wow, talk about Bad Santa! A few days ago I went shopping in San Francisco, hoping to drop by the landmark FAO Schwarz toy store in Union Square to buy a Kermit the Frog doll for my mom. However, upon arriving at the old location, I discovered that the entire chain had recently filed for bankruptcy. This came as a surprise to me, although apparently FAO Inc. has been in and out of Chapter 11 all year. Anyway, I just noticed an article about the bankruptcy on the New York Times website, and clicked on it, curious to see who had purchased the company.

And it turns out that, uh, well, we did. My company just bought FAO Schwarz. Obviously I picked a pretty lousy time to go on vacation.

Anyway, I'm pretty blown away by this news, which is by far the highest-profile deal my company has ever undertaken. (In terms of media coverage, anyway. In financial terms, this $20 million purchase is actually on the smallish side.) I probably can't comment on it any further, but rest assured that this is an interesting deal in all kinds of ways, especially in the direction that it bodes for my firm as a whole.