> Part of the issue is that somehow you can buy just the "assets" half of a company and ignore the "liabilities" portion.

You really can't and they didn't.

If Brewdog has creditors who lent it money or suppliers who are waiting on payment, then they will be getting paid as part of the deal or they will have agreed to a restructuring, up as far as being offered first refusal on the company's assets.

Brewdog's existing management could have made the exact same closures without selling the company.

If retail investors lost out here, it's because they were overly optimistic in the first place, or just unlucky, not because they're getting cheated in this deal. You can tell this because the institutional investors are also getting nothing out of it.