Toys 'R' Us has told employees it plans to close all 740 of its U.S. stores, having failed to restructure operations under bankruptcy protection, according to the Associated Press. The 70-year-old retailer will try to sell its Canadian business (about 200 stores) but keep its U.S. online store running for the next several weeks while seeking a buyer. The retailer is also likely to liquidate its businesses in Australia, France, Poland, Portugal and Spain. It has already closed its business in the U.K.

This would leave the company with stores in Canada, central Europe and Asia, where it could find buyers. Toys 'R' Us Asia Ltd. operates roughly 400 retail outlets across Brunei, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The entity is a Hong Kong–based joint venture with the Fung Group, which owns a 15 percent stake. 

Toys 'R' Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last fall, with some $5 billion in debt accrued when private-equity firms Bain Capital, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust took the company private in a $6.6 billion leveraged buyout in 2005.

Experts say servicing this debt load has kept Toys 'R' Us from being able to reinvest in its business to stay ahead of online and discounter rivals. Landlords have been expecting these closures for a while, and many say they are already lining up new tenants to fill Toys 'R' Us stores, though landlords in lower-traffic locations say they anticipate some difficulty replacing that anchor space.