With an initiative that further reconstructs the Bed Bath & Beyond business, Beyond has entered into an asset purchase agreement with BBBY Acquisition Co. LLC to acquire the global rights of the Buy Buy Baby brand for $5 million, a deal that may render a cryptocurrency component.
The purchase includes specific assets, databases, domains, intellectual property, vendor relationships and content related to Buy Buy Baby. Beyond envisions a brick-and-mortar presence for the Buy Buy Baby brand. It will be integrated with Beyond’s ongoing strategic development of the Bed Bath & Beyond banner, which also includes plans for physical stores, the company maintained.
Three factors drove the transaction, Beyond noted:
- Strengthening the Beyond Portfolio. With the company’s omnichannel partner, Kirkland’s, Beyond’s management believes the Buy Buy Baby brand has a strong future both online and in brick-and-mortar. Kirkland’s will have flexibility in developing Buy Buy Baby from incorporating the brand into Bed Bath & Beyond stores to opening standalone locations under each legacy nameplate. Beyond will position Buy Buy Baby as a destination for parents, offering curated selections of the best labels for every stage of childhood.
- Tokenizing Intellectual Property. Beyond and blockchain-based trading platform tZERO, with its SEC-regulated special purpose broker dealer license, are exploring the cryptocurrency tokenization of a portion of the Buy Buy Baby intellectual property. That would occur under two separate offerings on Beyond’s tZERO platform. The first would be 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, the goal is for the token to provide a share of the omnichannel revenue generated by the brand, along with loyalty benefits across the Beyond platform.
- Building the “LifeChain.” Management sees an opportunity to leverage tZERO’s blockchain technology and the 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. The initiative, dubbed LifeChain, would integrate the consumer’s financial and digital assets into a single, secure digital wallet supported by Salesforce and its Agentforce technology.
In announcing the deal, Marcus Lemonis, Beyond executive chairman (pictured above), said, “Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby have historically been synonymous with supporting families, their homes, and all of life’s milestones. Our goal is to go beyond the traditional omnichannel mindset, focusing on the four corners of the property and the four walls of the home. It is our objective to help homeowners enhance, protect and unlock the value of their most important assets and information related to their homes and lives.”
He added that the “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. We are leveraging our belief in the evolution of tokenizing assets and the critical importance of securing data related to your home and life.”
