Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus dies at 94

Wow, the day the start their liquidation, the Founder passes away..

This is a post from the Toys R Us Twitter page..

There have been many sad moments for Toys"R"Us in recent weeks, and none more heartbreaking than today's news about the passing of our beloved founder, Charles Lazarus. Our thoughts and prayers are with Charles' family and loved ones.

Charles Lazarus, who founded Toys "R" Us 70 years ago, died a week after the company announced it will be forced to shut down its U.S. operations. Lazarus no longer had any ownership position in the chain. He started the company as a 25-year old in 1948.

The company went public in 1978 and did great in the years that followed, from a $1 billion in the early 1990's to an $11 billion business.

The company faced growing competition from big box retailers such as Walmart (WMT) and Target (TGT) as it encountered other challenges.

Its debt was downgraded to junk bond status in January of 2005. A year later the company was sold for $6.6 billion to a group of private equity firms The deal left it saddled with $5.3 billion in debt and it never really recovered from that.