We now have even more reason to blame senior secured lenders to Toys "R" Us for the retailer's epic shutdown, with Bloomberg reporting that buyout firm Sycamore Partners held advanced talks to buy the company and keep half of its U.S. stores in business: Bottom line: This still doesn't excuse the many mistakes made by private equity firms Bain Capital and KKR . But thousands of jobs could have been saved if not for "B4 lender" intransigence. It's something we've discussed before, and it's only reinforced by the Sycamore revelation.