Skip to main content

Bed Bath & Beyond owner to acquire Buy Buy Baby for $5M; eyes stores, tokenization

BuyBuy Baby is launching its revival by opening 11 new retail stores this week from Massachusetts to Maryland.
Beyond, Inc. has entered into a deal to acquire the intellectural propery of Buy Buy Baby.

Beyond, Inc. is expanding its portfolio and, in the process, bringing two former sister brands back together again.

The owner of Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock has entered into agreement with BBBY Acquisition Co. LLC to acquire the global rights of the Buy Buy Baby brand for $5 million. The transaction includes certain assets, databases, domains, intellectual property, vendor relationships and content related to Buy Buy Baby. 

Buy Buy Baby was formerly owned by Bed Bath & Beyond, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2023. The Bed Bath & Beyond brand was sold to  Overstock.com (which subsequently changed its name to Beyond) while the intellectual property of Buy Buy Baby was sold in July 2023 for $15.5 million to baby products company Dream on Me. (The stores for both brands all went dark as part of the bankruptcy.)

Beyond is launching a three-part strategy for Buy Buy Baby that include the possibility of standalone stores, as well as two initiatives with fintech firm tZero. Under the first part of the strategy, Beyond will expand the baby goods brand via its October 2024 deal with home décor retailer Kirkland’s, whereby Kirkland’s will become Beyond's exclusive brick-and-mortar operator and licensee for new, smaller-format “neighborhood” Bed Bath & Beyond stores nationwide.   

Advertisement - article continues below
Advertisement

“Kirkland’s will have full flexibility, from integrating Buy Buy Baby into Bed Bath & Beyond stores, to opening standalone locations under each legacy banner,” Lemonis said. “The Buy Buy Baby in-store experience will be a destination for parents, offering curated selections of the best brands for every stage of childhood.”

In the other parts of the strategy, the company is considering two separate tokenization offerings on the tZero platform, with the first being a digital dividend available to current holders of Beyond as of a specific record date. The second would be an offering to new investors interested in owning a share of the intellectual property.

“In both cases, our goal is for the token to provide a revenue share on the omnichannel revenue generated by the brand, along with loyalty benefits across the Beyond platform," Lemonis said.

In the third initiative, Beyond said it sees the opportunity to leverage tZero’s blockchain technology and Buy Buy Baby assets to build the first ledger that records all significant life events, starting from birth records, medical records, and life milestones to educational records, financial products, insurance and purchases.

“This initiative, which we’re calling the 'LifeChain,' will integrate the consumer’s financial and digital assets into a single, secure digital wallet, supported by Salesforce and its Agentforce technology,” Lemonis said. 

"This acquisition, combined with Beyond’s existing portfolio of assets and investments, drives us toward our mandate of operating a profitable company focused on traditional revenue and earnings growth,” said Lemonis. “We are leveraging our belief in the evolution of tokenizing assets and the critical importance of securing data related to your home and life.”

X
This ad will auto-close in 10 seconds