Global Courant
NEW YORK — Bed & Bath & Beyond will live on, at least online, after Overstock.com acquired the bankrupt retail chain’s intellectual property rights for $21.5 million.
Online retailer Overstock.com dumps its name online and becomes Bed & Bath & Beyond declared bankruptcy earlier this year. Overstock.com CEO Jonathan Johnson told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday that the company is considering changing its corporate name, but will not make any decisions until it processes the assets.
The switcheroo to a highly recognizable brand was applauded on Wall Street. Shares of Overstock.com Inc., based in Midvale, Utah, rose nearly 20% during midday trading on Thursday.
The deal does not include Bed Bath & Beyond stores, the latter of which is expected to close Friday, or the Buybuy Baby chain.
The name change will roll out in Canada next month, and a relaunch of the company’s website and mobile app as Bed Bath & Beyond will appear in the US in August. Anyone visiting overstock.com will be redirected to bedbathandbeyond.com.
The Overstock name still confuses some customers and suppliers who thought it was a liquidator. That’s how it started in 1999. In 2004 it transformed into a general merchandise retailer, selling a wide range of items. In 2021, Overstock has refined its strategy to focus on furniture and home accessories, removing items such as clothing.
As Bed Bath & Beyond’s financial problems worsened last year, Overstock.com attempted to sue the retailer’s suppliers, but was met with some skepticism. But after its bid for Bed Bath went public last week, it was able to add 100,000 bed and bath items to its site, Johnson said. He expects the pace to pick up.
“I can’t count how many times we were asked when we were going to change the company name,” he said. “This opportunity is too good to be true. We are Bed Bath and a bigger one beyond.”
Johnson said it will be offering a number of coupons to cater to Bed Bath & Beyond customers accustomed to the popular perk, but he noted that customers will be surprised that the discounts offered by Overstock.com are actually available every day be better. He also added that Overstock plans to ramp up marketing to Bed Bath & Beyond customers to raise awareness of the change.
He estimated that Overstock.com has about 5 million customers; Bed Bath & Beyond’s online customers number about 10 million.
Bed Bath & Beyond – one of the original chain stores known for its seemingly endless supply of sheets, towels and kitchen gadgets – filed an application bankruptcy protection in April. The filing followed years of dismal sales and numerous attempts to turn the flailing company around.
