Beyond to acquire Buy Buy Baby rights in $5 million brand deal

Beyond Inc. has agreed to acquire the global rights to the Buy Buy Baby brand for $5 million, adding the baby-products name back to the company that owns Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock. MarketWatch reported that Beyond shares rose 1% in early Monday trading, even as the broader market was sharply lower.

The company said the transaction covers assets linked to Buy Buy Baby, including databases, intellectual property, vendor relationships and content. Those items give a buyer control over the commercial tools used to operate a brand online or through partnerships: customer and product data, rights to names and other protected material, supplier links and digital material used to market and sell goods.

Beyond said the acquisition would reunite Buy Buy Baby with Bed Bath & Beyond, two retail brands that had been separated after Bed Bath & Beyond’s collapse in 2023. Buy Buy Baby had been one of the better-known names in the former Bed Bath & Beyond stable, according to MarketWatch.

Brand returns after bankruptcy sale

Buy Buy Baby was sold during Bed Bath & Beyond’s 2023 bankruptcy to Dream on Me Industries Inc., a vendor. Dream on Me reopened 11 Buy Buy Baby stores after that purchase, according to MarketWatch, but later shut them in October to concentrate on the digital side of the business.

The new deal positions Beyond to hold the Buy Buy Baby rights alongside Bed Bath & Beyond, rather than leaving the baby-products brand under a separate owner. The disclosed purchase price is small relative to large retail mergers, but the transaction is focused on brand rights and related operating assets, not a disclosed store network.

Beyond is the parent company of Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock. Its agreement to buy the Buy Buy Baby rights adds another consumer retail name to that group and gives the company control of the brand’s global rights, according to the company’s statement reported by MarketWatch.

Beyond weighs digital use of intellectual property

Marcus Lemonis, Beyond’s executive chair, said the transaction would strengthen the company’s group of brands. He also said Beyond would examine tokenizing some of Buy Buy Baby’s intellectual property.

Tokenizing intellectual property can involve representing a right or related asset through a digital token, although Beyond did not disclose specific terms, timing or a structure for any such plan in the information reported by MarketWatch. The confirmed transaction is the $5 million acquisition of Buy Buy Baby’s global rights and associated assets.

The announcement gives investors another data point on Beyond’s effort to shape its retail brand holdings after the bankruptcy of Bed Bath & Beyond and the separate sale of Buy Buy Baby. Market reaction was limited in early trading, with the stock up 1% at the time reported by MarketWatch.

This story draws on original reporting from MarketWatch Market Pulse.