[ad_1]
Signs showing that everything is for sale at the Buy Buy Baby store in the Brooklyn borough of New York, February 6, 2023.
Stephanie Keith | bloomberg | Getty Images
CNBC has learned that Buy Buy Buy Baby stores are set to disappear after a last-ditch effort to save the chain and keep the business going collapsed.
Brand management company Go Global Retail, which owns children’s clothing company Janie and Jack, was eager to buy the darling bed bath behind Company CEO Jeff Strider told CNBC.
Lender Sixth Street Partners, Bed Bath & Beyond’s principal creditor, decided it could recoup more of its losses than Go Global was willing to offer by selling Buy Buy Baby’s intellectual property, auctioning the leases and moving forward with liquidation sales.
Dream on Me Industries, a little-known New Jersey-based retailer and former Buy Buy Baby supplier, won the chain’s brand and digital assets for $15.5 million after Bed Bath & Beyond failed to receive any higher bids.
Go Global thought there was a way to close as recently as Monday, but in the end, it couldn’t agree on a number with Sixth Street, Streader said.
“We were fair in our offer. Sixth Street was not unreasonable, but there was a difference of opinion on the assessment,” he said. “We wish the IP bid winners success in their journey.”
Go Global’s bid was higher than Dream on Me’s bid, but not by much because “there’s been significant erosion in value in the past six weeks,” according to a person close to the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
When the auction process first began, Go Global was willing to offer a “much higher” price, the source said. In May, the company was seeking an additional $50 million in capital to support its bid, CNBC previously reported.
However, after nearly three months of liquidated sales at Buy Buy Baby’s 120 store, there is very little left to bid besides IP, empty stores, leases and any remaining inventory, the source said.
Over the past several weeks, Bed Bath & Beyond had repeatedly pushed through and broken up the bankruptcy-run auction process for Buy Buy Baby until it could secure higher bids and find a company that was willing to keep the stores running.
However, every time the auction was delayed, the source said, it was delayed by a week or so, which “definitely deterred potential bidders or investors.”
“Most people can’t move that fast,” the source added.
During a hearing in federal bankruptcy court in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Judge Vincent Papalia agreed to sell the intellectual property of Buy Buy Buy Baby to Dream on Me as one of the show’s employees, who appeared virtually via Zoom for the hearing, smoking a cigarette onscreen. .
Bed Bath & Beyond’s attorneys said it was “unfortunate” that they were unable to secure a buyer because Papalia and other attorneys present at the hearing expressed disappointment that the chain could not be saved.
“I share the disappointment at the lack of ongoing bids,” Papalia said.
“It’s a shame, I think both parts don’t go forward and that’s disappointing. I had higher hopes going forward but at times, those hopes don’t come true.”
[ad_2]
