Jerry Storch, a former CEO of bankrupt Toys R Us, is reportedly considering reviving the toy retailer and has been working with investors and bankers to stitch his plan together.
Bloomberg reported Monday afternoon that Storch has been working with Credit Suisse Group as a financial advisor, based on the news outlet's conversations with people familiar with the situation. Talks have also included Fairfax Financial Holdings, the investment firm that acquired the Canadian unit of Toys R Us, those sources told Bloomberg.
Storch declined CNBC's request for comment. Toys R Us, Credit Suisse and Fairfax didn't immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.
The news comes the same week that Toys R Us finishes shuttering all of its more than 800 U.S. locations. Liquidation sales have been in place for the past few months. Party City, meanwhile, is planning to open temporary Toy City stores ahead of this holiday season.
Later this summer, Toys R Us will have a bankruptcy auction for its intellectual property, which according to Bloomberg, Storch hopes to win.
The embattled retailer has meanwhile been shedding its real estate, and bidders for vacant stores have included Target, Aldi, Big Lots, and Raymour & Flanigan, CNBC has reported.
Storch, also a former CEO of department store chain Hudson's Bay, took over as chief at Toys R Us after Bain Capital, KKR & Co. and Vornado Realty Trust took the company private in 2005. He left in early 2013 and now heads up a retail advisory firm.
Storch told CNBC in March that retailers can survive the so-called retail apocalypse if they control their intellectual property, alluding to the demise of Toys R Us and what the future holds.
"Toys R Us will survive in a different form," he told CNBC in December.
A person familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that Storch aspires to operate "several hundred stores" with both the Toys R Us and Babies R Us brands under one roof. Sources told Bloomberg that Storch has recruited other former executives to help him and that he has been in talks with real estate landlords.