Beyond Inc. announced that it has entered an acquisition agreement for the global rights to the Buy Buy Baby brand.
The Beyond acquisition would reunite brands Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby under the same umbrella. In early 2024, Overstock.com rebranded as Beyond Inc. after it had acquired Bed Bath & Beyond, which had fallen into bankruptcy in April 2023. Bed Bath & Beyond had owned Buy Buy Baby before the bankruptcy, which New Jersey-based Dream On Me Inc., which manufactures cribs and other nursery furniture, acquired in June that year for about $21.5 million.
Buy Buy Baby had relaunched in November 2023 under the new ownership with a focus on reestablishing its brand name, in part by growing its digital audience. In the fall of 2024, Buy Buy Baby announced it would close its 10 remaining physical retail stores by the end of the year, shifting to an ecommerce-only business model.
Beyond Inc. ranks No. 68 in the Top 2000 Database. The Digital Commerce 360 database ranks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales. Bed Bath & Beyond ranked No. 47 before its bankruptcy.
Details of Beyond’s Buy Buy Baby acquisition
The Buy Buy Baby acquisition will cost Beyond Inc. $5 million, and it will include:
- Assets
- Databases
- Domains
- Intellectual property
- Vendor relationships
- Content related to Buy Buy Baby
“Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby have historically been synonymous with supporting families, their homes, and all of life’s milestones,” said Beyond executive chairman Marcus Lemonis, in a statement. 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.”
Why Beyond sought to acquire Buy Buy Baby
Lemonis cited three strategic points that drove the Beyond acquisition of Buy Buy Baby. The primary point was to strengthen Beyond’s portfolio, he said.
“Alongside our omnichannel partner, Kirkland’s, we collectively believe the Buy Buy Baby brand has a strong future both online and in brick-and-mortar,” Lemonis added. “Kirkland’s will have full flexibility, from integrating Buy Buy Baby into Bed Bath & Beyond stores, to opening standalone locations under each legacy banner.”
The second decision driver, he said, was “tokenizing intellectual property.”
“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,” Lemonis said. “We are leveraging our belief in the evolution of tokenizing assets and the critical importance of securing data related to your home and life.”
He referred to the third driver as “building the LifeChain.” He described it as a digital wallet supported by software provider Salesforce‘s Agentforce technology.
Beyond to create tokens for Buy Buy Baby intellectual property
Working with financial technology company tZero, Beyond’s Lemonis said the retailer is “exploring the tokenization of a portion of the Buy Buy Baby intellectual property.”
Beyond is considering two separate offerings using tZero’s platform, he added:
- A digital dividend that Beyond would make available to current Beyond shareholders as of a date the retailer would identify.
- An offering to new investors interested in owning a share of Buy Buy Baby 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 elaborated in the statement.
Buy Buy Baby ‘LifeChain’
Also using tZero blockchain technology, Lemonis said he sees an opportunity with Buy Buy Baby “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,” he explained.
In North America, 76 of the Top 2000 online retailers use Salesforce as their ecommerce platform. In 2024, those retailers combined to make more than $136 billion in ecommerce sales.
Beyond’s recent acquisitions and deals
Beyond announced two deals in October 2024 with The Container Store and Kirkland’s that would pave the way for its brands to gain new footholds in physical stores.
For Beyond, the investment in exchange for these spaces presented an opportunity to expand to real-world locations from digital sales.
Then, Beyond said in November that the deal with The Container Store may not happen, citing financing terms. But on Feb. 5, 2025, Beyond and Kirkland’s announced that they approved a deal through which Beyond has provided a total of $25 million in capital and now owns about 40% of Kirkland’s outstanding shares of common stock.
Beyond’s brands include:
- Baby & Beyond
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Overstock
- Zulily
In early 2024, Beyond acquired Zulily’s intellectual property for $4.5 million. That gave it the rights to Zulily’s domain name, website, trademarks, customer database, social media accounts, and software.
Zulily had shut down operations in December 2023 following layoffs and “financial instability,” it said at the time. Prior to that, Qurate (now known as QVC Group) had sold Zulily to private equity firm Regent and Baker for an undisclosed amount in May 2023. Qurate had acquired Zulily in 2015 for $2.4 billion. QVC Group ranks No. 38 in the Top 2000.
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