Private Equity-owned Companies in Times Square 

1584 Broadway; 243 W 42^nd St.

Private equity owner: KKR (pending)

Deal announced: n/a

Proposed value: n/a

Employees: 12,750

If things go right for the buyout industry, they could be covering you from head to toe. Lids, a retail chain specializing in baseball hats, was purchased by Genesco, known for Johnson & Murphy shoes, back in 2004. Those who know shoes speculate that KKR could buy both Genesco and Skechers, which could mean consolidation and possibly layoffs as they restructured to find profits to pull from the merged company. One of Lids’ founders once said, “[E]verybody has $20. A hat is clearly an impulse buy, but one that people can afford.” Workers tell us that their wages hover around $8.00 an hour; for them a “lid” represents about two-and-a-half hours of work. At those wages, the employees more likely are having their hats simply handed to them.