A major third-party seller on Amazon filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a New Jersey court on Wednesday.
Walpole, Massachusetts-based Thrasio is asking the court to oversee a restructuring agreement with lenders, which will allow it to cut about $495 million in debt and defer its interest payments for a year after it exists bankruptcy.
Thrasio is what is known as an Amazon aggregator, companies that buy other, smaller Amazon sellers, the independent businesses responsible for the majority of sales on the dominant e-commerce platform.
In its filing, Thrasio said it has received commitments of up to $90 million in new financing from lenders. It lists up to $10 billion in assets and up to $1 billion in liabilities.
“Thrasio is one of the largest third-party sellers on the Amazon marketplace, and with a strengthened balance sheet and new capital, we will be better equipped to support our brands, scale our infrastructure and enable future opportunities,” CEO Greg Greeley said in a statement.
Economy grows 3.2% in fourth quarter
The U.S. economy grew at a robust 3.2% annual pace from October through December, propelled by healthy consumer spending, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday in a slight downgrade from its initial estimate.
The expansion in the nation’s gross domestic product — the economy’s total output of goods and services — slipped from a red-hot 4.9% from July through September. The fourth-quarter GDP numbers were revised down from the 3.3% pace Commerce initially reported last month.
U.S. growth has now topped 2% for six straight quarters, defying fears that high interest rates would tip the world’s largest economy into a recession.
Far from stumbling, the economy grew 2.5% for all of 2023, topping the 1.9% growth in 2022.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity, grew at a 3% annual pace from October through December.
Spending by state and local governments rose at a 5.4% annual rate from October through December, fastest pace since 2019. Growing exports also contributed to fourth-quarter growth.