Don't bid Buy Buy Baby goodbye yet.
The chain's parent company, Union, New Jersey-based Bed Bath Beyond, has scheduled a separate auction for the baby-goods retailer, which specializes in clothing and furniture for infants and kids. That proceeding is slated for June 28.
Beleaguered Bed Bath & Beyond, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, looks like it is heading for liquidation, with an auction of its assets set for Wednesday. But in a court filing, the retailer said Monday it wanted a separate sale process for Buy Buy Baby, which is considered its crown jewel.
Scheduling that second auction for Buy Buy Baby later this month will "allow more time to progress discussions with interested parties for those assets," Bed Bath & Beyond said in an email to CoStar News on Tuesday. And it could be a reprieve for Buy Buy Baby, keeping the chain alive.
A final hearing on the asset sales is slated for July 11, according to Bed Bath Beyond.
Bed Bath & Beyond has already been shuttering its namesake locations, as well as some Buy Buy Baby stores, after saying it would have to liquidate and wind down its business if it didn't find a buyer for its holdings. Bed Bath & Beyond's brick-and-mortar footprint hasn't attracted offers so far.
But the company has accepted a $21.5 million offer from Overstock.com, which is based in Midvale, Utah, for its intellectual properties. That will serve as a "stalking horse" bid, meaning that other interested bidders can't submit offers below that benchmark this week. Overstock wants to acquire Bed Bath & Beyond's intellectual properties, good will, internet properties, rights to mobile applications and certain contracts.
Bed Bath & Beyond's biggest lender, Sixth Street Partners, had also been considering bidding on some of the retailer's assets, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
Bed Bath & Beyond had also been in talks to sell Buy Buy Baby to the owner of kids' retailer Janie and Jack, which is private equity firm Go Global Retail, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A&G Real Estate Partners has been chosen to market hundreds of Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby retail leases nationwide in its role as the firm's real estate adviser. In addition, A&G and JLL plan to market a data center that the retailer owns in Claremont, North Carolina, as well as nine leases for distribution facilities in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey and Texas.
But the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for New Jersey will have to approve the sale of those leases, pending the results of the two auctions.