Toys R Us might be coming back after the auction for its brand was cancelled

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Toys R Us might be coming back after the auction for its brand was cancelled

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Business Insider/Jessica Tyler

Toys R Us could be coming back from the dead.

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  • An anticipated auction for the Toys R Us brand has been cancelled, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing court documents.
  • Instead, the interests that now control the brand will consider trying to revive both Toys R Us and Babies R Us.
  • The move would be the latest in the ongoing saga of Toys R Us, which liquidated all of its US stores this year after entering bankruptcy in September 2017.

Toys R Us could be coming back.

The auction for the Toys R Us brand and rights has been cancelled, according to court documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal.

The controlling interests, including hedge funds and asset managers, that would have gained from selling the assets will instead consider trying to revive both the Toys R Us and Babies R Us brands.

The auction was for everything not already liquidated amid the bankruptcy, including the Toys R Us and Babies R Us brand names, its websites, and the Geoffrey the Giraffe mascot.

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Now, the new plan is to consider creating "a new, operating Toys R Us and Babies R Us branding company that maintains existing global license agreements and can invest in and create new, domestic, retail operating businesses," according to the court documents.

The controlling interests, which, according to the Journal, include Solus Alternative Asset Management, arrived at this decision after receiving some bids for the retailer's intellectual property. It found, however, that a plan to revive the retailer would actually be better suited to their interests rather than an immediate sale.

Solus did not immediately return Business Insider's request for comment.

Toys R Us, which was the only nationwide specialty retailer for toys, left a hole in the market after it liquidated all of its US operations earlier this year. It's a hole that that its competitors are trying desperately to fill, as Toys R Us did about $11 billion in sales its last full year of business.

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