Joann carried a 2011 leveraged buyout's debt for 14 years — then liquidated all 800 stores

In December 2010, Leonard Green & Partners agreed to take Jo-Ann Stores private for about $1.6 billion, paying $61 a share, financed largely with debt loaded onto the company itself. Shareholders approved the deal in March 2011 and Joann left the public markets carrying the buyout's leverage.

Joann returned to public markets in a 2021 IPO but never worked off the LBO-era debt load. On March 18, 2024, it filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 with lenders already agreed on a restructuring that cut roughly $505 million of funded debt through a debt-for-equity swap; the company emerged in April 2024 as a private company controlled by its former lenders, with existing equity essentially wiped out.

The rescue did not hold. Joann's disclosure statements said inventory challenges and vendor problems after emergence caused its post-bankruptcy business plan to collapse, even as it still carried $615.7 million in debt. On January 15, 2025 — nine months after exiting its first case — Joann filed a second Chapter 11 and this time pursued a sale rather than another restructuring.

The bankruptcy auction was won by GA Group and the company's lenders, who chose liquidation over operating the chain, and all of Joann's roughly 800 stores were closed by mid-2025. In June 2025, Michaels Companies acquired Joann's intellectual property and private-label brands, including Big Twist, while the store network and the Joann retail business itself ceased to exist.