With Bed Bath & Beyond (OTHER OTC:BBBYQ) stores now vanishingly rare, it’s easy to wonder what’s going to happen to the stuff that never made it to shelves. Not to mention the less tangible stuff like intellectual property. Now, it’s a bit more clear: Overstock (NASDAQ:OSTK) is serving as Bed Bath & Beyond’s stalking horse bidder. Investors welcomed the move, sending OSTK stock up just over 4% at one point in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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Overstock put down $21.5 million for Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property and business data. Now, any objecting parties have until June 20 to file said objections. If it goes through, all Bed Bath & Beyond stores will be closed for good. Some Bed Bath & Beyond assets will be excluded from this sale, however. That might include anything in the Buy Buy Baby line, as a recent Seeking Alpha report noted that Bed Bath & Beyond was already in talks with Janie and Jack, a children’s clothing store line, to take over on that front.
A CNBC report, meanwhile, noted what the Overstock bid did cover. It includes all the business’ data, internet, and mobile site properties. It does not cover any of the store locations for either Bed Bath & Beyond or Buy Buy Baby. Potential purchasers have already expressed interest in Bed Bath & Beyond’s digital assets, though earlier reports suggest that bidders’ interest in the real estate is somewhat diminished.
Interestingly, hedge funds are increasingly behind Overstock. Currently, hedge fund confidence is rated as Positive, as they added 24,600 shares of Overstock to their portfolios last quarter. In fact, that’s the second time in a row that hedge funds have increased their overall positions.
