Ad Populum purchases Toys ‘R’ Us Canada

A court has approved a sale of Toys ‘R’ Us Canada which would split up the business across three transactions. The move is part of the company’s restructuring, a similar process to Chapter 11.

The IP and trademark will be sold to Ad Populum, the company that was part of the purchase of Diamond Comic Distributors, and owns NECA, Diamond Select Toys, Gentle Giant, Party City, KidRobot, WizKids, and Elvis Presley’s Graceland. Joel Weinshanker and Ad Populum seem to focus on these sort of purchases in their corporate expansion. Diamond and all of its assets, as an example, as purchased as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The purchase of Diamond by Ad Populum, with a new entity dubbed Sparkle Pop, has been a mess spinning off into dozens of lawsuits that has gone on for over a year.

Under the court-approved sale, trademarks including Toys “R” Us, Babies “R” Us, and Geoffrey the Giraffe will be controlled by Ad Populum, but only in Canada. WHP Global owns and manages the Toys ‘R’ Us brand and the IP in the U.S. and worldwide.

The second part of the sale features Fox Group Jumbo Canada Inc. and it acquiring the lease for a store at Vaughan Mills near Toronto. That’ll turn into a Jumbo store.

The third part of the transaction features 10 locations and operating assets going to 2625229 Ontario Inc. That company is headed by Doug Putman who heads Putman Investments which currently owns Toys ‘R’ Us Canada which they acquired in 2021. They’ll have the license to operate Toys ‘R’ Us Canada until January, at which point they’d need to get a new licensing agreement from Ad Populum or rebrand the stores.