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You can now buy Bed Bath & Beyond shares for a few measly coins, but will anyone touch it?

Once the 'go-to' in home goods, and the pioneer of the big box retailer movement, Bed Bath & Beyond is quite possibly breathing its last few breaths. They sounded the bankruptcy alarm, but ultimately came up with a restructuring and recalibrating plan, and a public offering which raised $225M in February. According to current CEO, Sue Gove, it's one that will require $1B to see through.

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But, how did it get to this point?

• 1992 went public BBBY
• 1998 surpassed $1B in revenue
• 2014 share price peaked ~$70
• 2016 share price dipped below $40
• 2017-2018 continued decline
• 2019 Former Target exec Mark Tritton was brought in as CEO to right the ship, and investor confidence renewed
• 2020 a little pandemic you may have heard of brings on sucky times for retailers

BBB stayed barely above water thanks to their ecommerce efforts, but with the stock price hovering around $4, better ecommerce solutions popping up, and closing over 100 stores, things were looking bleak. The company reported a $358m loss in Q1 2022 and punted Mark Tritton and his team. Enter, the Reddit crowd. Fresh off the backs of the Gamestop phenomenon, the Redditors turned their sights to Bed Bath & Beyond and cash poured in. Ryan Cohen (RC Ventures/Chewy/Gamestop) became the company’s largest investor and put the company on a mission. The stock rose, things were happening, but the company was still lighting money on fire. They couldn’t squeeze out one profitable quarter. So, after only a few months of a surging stock price, Cohen dumped his stake for a breezy $68M profit, and investors panicked.

Topping it off, a class action lawsuit popped up alleging insider trading between Cohen and Bed Bath & Beyond’s CFO Gustavo Arnal who, once named in the suit, took a running leap out of his 18th storey New York Apartment. Curious.

Anyhoo, the new executive team lead by CEO Sue Gove, has now released plans to hold off bankruptcy with this new raise and take the company back into relevance with, in part, a new vendor-to-consumer platform and other initiatives. Will you reach under your sofa cushions and take the bet?

• Read more on Bed Bath & Beyond's journey here​

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As you ponder, here’s what you may have missed last week…

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​NEWS, VIEWS & INTERESTING STUFF

• One of the more ironic headlines: Pornhub sold to Ethical Partners - yes, you read that right! Parent company Mindgeek was acquired by the Canadian PE firm who seem particularly aroused by the proprietary tools Pornhub has developed to weed out illegal or unverified uploads, and track stolen content.
• Another week, and another thing Elon is pissed about. This time it's Elon vs Open Ai​

Elon Musk @elonmusk @Carnage4Life I’m still confused as to how a non-profit to which I donated ~$100M somehow became a $30B market cap for-profit. If this is legal, why doesn’t everyone do it? Dare Obasanjo @Carnage4Life Whenever you call Sam Altman to ask why OpenAI is no longer a non-profit or even “open” pic.twitter.com/TxMXR2Cf2d March 15th 2023 16,902 Retweets 158,600 Likes

• Luxury watches once seen as an indulgence now might just be a wise investment as watches outperform S&P! ​
• Poor Silicon Valley Bank watching from the sidelines as the value of their merch skyrockets on Ebay and Funny SVB t-shirts and other items available on Etsy
• ​Zoom has a new partner! Human umpires in baseball are still a thing, at least for now. This year at least umps get to use a familiar piece of technology as they'll be chatting with the replay room on Zoom with this new partnership with MLB.
• Will this have oil tycoons skating in their alligator skin boots? VW has released plans for its affordable electric car.​
• ​MLS doubles down on TikTok in a multi-year partnership in the midst of questions about a potential ban in the US. A huge gamble or do they know something the rest of us don't?

💥JUST LANDED💥

M&A Industry’s First AI Recommendation Engine

Online Investing Buzz

Our friends at Centurica just dropped some end of year data and it looks like FBA businesses still dominate the online business listings for sale...

Yet the percentage of sold listings dropped dramatically throughout the year which can largely be contributed to the decline of the aggregator model and rising inflation...

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🏠 Meanwhile in Real Estate

• Could the free fall of the banking system work in favor of multi-family investors?
• February sales data: sales up, median price down, when was the last time we saw that?
• These are 10 US markets where homes are selling fast, and for more than last year. Do any of these seem appealing?

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Not a member? Fix that and join the waitlist here.​

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Great chats and threads from the Discord you may have missed…

• Travis' post about EU inflation sparked a great conversation about US/EU comparisons
• Angelo shared a great story of a car blog-turned billion dollar marketplace​
• Karl shared info on the Arbitrum Airdrop which spark some good crypto banter
• Geoff shared a link to Bill's epic tweet on the ecommerce lending schemes and how they really operate. (Hint: it's nasty)
• Some chatter around the Ethical Partners acquisition of Mindgeek​

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In the forum...

• Travis shares why he repurchased BTC and his thoughts on the infamous Balaji bet that started a Twitter storm
• The latest digital acquisition deals posted in the Marketplace​
• New Advice Please section added to the Community forum - if you need advice or feedback, post it here
• Some new and interesting podcast episodes everyone should needs to hear.

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Disclaimer: Not financial, investing or tax advice. This newsletter is strictly for information, entertainment and education purposes. Nothing in here is investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your professional advisors. Do your own research.

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