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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowOverstock.com plans to acquire Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property and other digital assets for $21.5 million, in line with its original bid for the bankrupt retailer’s assets, according to court documents filed Thursday.
The deal—which covers Bed Bath & Beyond’s brand name, business data and digital assets but excludes its brick-and-mortar stores—must still be approved by New Jersey’s bankruptcy court at a hearing on Tuesday. Overstock, based in Midvale, Utah, sells furniture and home decor at discount prices.
Additionally, two backup bidders were selected for specific brands: JOWA Brands for Bed Bath & Beyond’s Wamsutta brand, and Ten Twenty Four for Beyond.com. Buy Buy Baby, an infant-goods retailer owned by Bed Bath & Beyond, will be auctioned separately on June 28, CNBC reported.
Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed in a statement Thursday that Overstock was selected as the winning bidder. Overstock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In late April, the troubled chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid plunging sales, a tanking share price and competition from retailers offering their own home goods, including Wayfair, Amazon and Target. The company said it would close all of its stores by the end of June, including stores in Carmel, Noblesville and Greenwood.
The retailer’s downfall was also marked by other missteps, such as a $1 billion stock buyback in 2021 that left the company short on cash.
In January, it reported a $393 million quarterly loss that pushed fiscal year-to-date losses to more than $1.1 billion. Later that month, it said that it would be unable to pay back a $550 million loan from JP Morgan and another $375 million from Sixth Street. At that point, it had already closed 150 stores and planned to close dozens more.
But more fundamentally, the 52-year-old retailer’s decline can be traced to its fading relevance to consumers, according to analysts.
Overstock in April reported a net loss of $10 million in the first quarter of 2023. At the time, Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson insisted the company still had a strong cash position “to deploy new strategies to drive growth” despite an “uncertain” economic and consumer environment. He added the company would lean into its core brand value of “quality and style for less.”
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