Overstock.com is taking the Bed, Bath & Beyond brand, but not the stores, into the liquidation sale

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SALT LAKE CITY – After seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, powerhouse US retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond is in liquidation auctions and Utah-based online giant Overstock.com appears poised to snap up the chain’s trademark and intellectual property. and others. origins. But brick-and-mortar stores aren’t part of the deal.

Overstock made a low-ball “chase horse” bid of $21.5 million last week, and according to Washington Post; Bed Bath and Beyond confirmed on Thursday that it had accepted the offer. If approved by the New Jersey bankruptcy court at a hearing next week, Overstock will have access to the Bed, Bath & Beyond brand name, business data and digital assets. Physical stores are not part of the deal. At its peak, Bed, Bath & Beyond operated more than 1,500 stores, but as of early May, it was down to about 350 locations.

In response to a Deseret News inquiry, Overstock.com Declined to comment pending transaction completion. Shares of Overstock were up more than 17% for the day at the close of regular trading on Thursday.

The value of Bed, Bath & Beyond has been on a downward slope since its stock peaked at around $81 per share in early 2014. In April of this year, the share price fell to mere pennies. Analysts have pointed to countless missteps by company executives, including a failed shift from third-party products to store-brand goods and a massive stock buyback program.

While Overstock is looking for ways to cash in on Bed, Bath & Beyond’s intangible assets upon completion of the deal, Bed, Bath & Beyond is looking for a separate path to divest its branded Buy Buy Baby division, which includes about 120 stores and is the most valuable remaining asset. for the company. According to Buy Buy Buy, the assets of the Buy Buy Baby will be up for auction next Wednesday CNBC.

Last August, Bed, Bath & Beyond announced it was closing stores and laying off workers in an effort to turn around its beleaguered business, according to Associated Press. It closed about 150 of its namesake stores and cut its workforce by 20%. It estimated that these cuts would save $250 million in the company’s current fiscal year. It also said in August that it had raised more than $500 million in new funding.

Bogged down by a prolonged sales slump, the company also announced in August that it would return to its original strategy of focusing on national brands, rather than pushing its own store labels.

That reversed the strategy adopted by former CEO Mark Tritton, who was ousted last June after less than three years at the helm, according to the Associated Press. The company said it would get rid of a third of its store brands less than a year after it was introduced.

After a dismal financial report released in January, Bed Bath & Beyond’s current president and CEO, Sue Gove, said the company had struggled to keep ample inventory on hand thanks to credit issues with vendors, but even amid a raft of bleak financial news, at the time it She still believed in him that there was a chance of saving the business.

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