–Dan Kelly, Attorney
A couple of weeks ago, news reports came out that KB Toys, which had filed for bankruptcy in December, sold its trademarks and domain names to a company called CE Stores LLC for $2.1 million. Last week, Toys “R” Us disclosed that it owns CE Stores. While this may be somewhat unremarkable, consider that Toys “R” Us has made the following other moves this year:
- In February, it purchased eToys.com, babyuniverse.com, and ePregnancy.com for an undisclosed amount.
- In March, it purchased Toys.com for $5.1 million.
- In May, it purchased FAO Schwartz for an undisclosed sum.
Well, looks like all of our toys now belong to Toys “R” Us. Let’s hope they don’t pick them up in a huff and go home. I am fairly certain that there are no other national bricks and mortar toy retailers left (not counting department stores), and I wonder if the Federal Trade Commission will snoop around for antitrust compliance issues. (Toys “R” Us has been down that path before.) In the meantime, good luck finding competitive deals on toys!