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Exclusive: Bed Bath & Beyond preparing to file bankruptcy as soon as this week -sources

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NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, and has lined up liquidators to close additional stores unless a last-minute buyer emerges, four people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The timing of any bankruptcy filing was in flux Monday evening, with the U.S. home goods retailer’s advisers locked in meetings exploring any remaining options to avoid it, another person familiar with the matter said.

Bed Bath & Beyond is negotiating a loan to help it navigate bankruptcy proceedings, with investment firm Sixth Street in talks to provide some funding, two of the people said. The firm loaned Bed Bath & Beyond $375 million last year.

The chain, once considered a category killer in home goods like dinnerware and small appliances, has lined up liquidators who are readying store closing sales that could be launched as soon as this weekend, two of the people said.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are not public.

The chain has said it is closing 87 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and five buybuy BABY stores, in addition to 150 closures announced last year. It is also shutting its health and beauty discount chain Harmon.

The people cautioned that a last-minute buyer for the chain could emerge, or it could still ink a deal for its brands such as buybuy BABY. Prospective buyers sometimes wait until a company files for bankruptcy before agreeing to purchase assets, hoping to negotiate more favorable terms.

Bed Bath & Beyond said in a statement to Reuters that it continued to work with its advisers to consider “multiple paths” but declined to comment on any bankruptcy planning.

The company has previously said it was exploring a range of options to address plunging sales, including selling assets, raising financing and declaring bankruptcy.

Sixth Street declined to comment.

Bed Bath & Beyond said last week it defaulted on a loan, bringing it closer to bankruptcy. Sources have also told Reuters that Bed Bath & Beyond is considering skipping debt payments due on Feb. 1, a typical move that distressed companies take to conserve cash.

Retailers in distress often decide to file for bankruptcy protection after the holiday season to take advantage of the cash cushion provided by recent sales.

Toys R Us liquidated in March 2018 in one of the largest failures to date of a specialty retailer.

As of February 2022, Bed Bath & Beyond had 953 locations, including buybuy BABY.

Bed Bath & Beyond for years had been considered a go-to shopping destination for couples making wedding registries and planning for new babies, but it lost its footing when it tried to expand into store brands.

The retailer’s management has since reversed course and aimed to bring in national brands shoppers knew the chain for. But the strategy has not gained traction with shoppers.

Earlier this month, the company raised doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern and said it would cut jobs.

Bed Bath & Beyond reported a loss of about $393 million after sales plunged 33% for the quarter ending Nov. 26.

Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Mike Spector; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Jamie Freed

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jessica DiNapoli

Thomson Reuters

New York-based reporter covering U.S. consumer products spanning from paper towels to packaged food, the companies that make them and how they’re responding to the economy. Previously reported on corporate boards and distressed companies.

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Business

Bed Bath & Beyond preparing to file bankruptcy within weeks -sources

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Jan 5 (Reuters) – Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) is preparing to seek bankruptcy protection in coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said, following poor sales and an inability to compete with large online and big-box retailers.

The U.S. home goods retailer is considering skipping debt payments due Feb. 1, one of the sources said, a typical move distressed companies on the verge of bankruptcy take to conserve cash.

Shares of the retailer, once a category killer in products like small appliances and bed sheets, ended down 30% on Thursday at $1.69 after the company said it expected to report a significant third-quarter loss and that there was substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern.

The company said it was exploring a range of options to address its plunging sales that included declaring bankruptcy. The retailer said it has not made any final decisions on which course to take.

Bed Bath & Beyond had no immediate comment on any bankruptcy preparations beyond its disclosure on Thursday.

The company has interest payments on roughly $1.5 billion of bonds due Feb. 1, according to securities filings. The company is considering skipping the payout to conserve cash, which would likely trigger a 30-day grace period before the company officially defaults, the people said.

Troubled retailers often seek bankruptcy protection following the holiday season to take advantage of the cash cushion provided by recent sales. Should the company seek bankruptcy protection, it would likely seek financing from existing creditors to help it navigate a court restructuring, one of the people said.

The retailer’s fortunes soured after it pursued a strategy focused on its own private label goods. Management has since reversed course to bring in national brands shoppers recognized.

But on Thursday, signs emerged that this strategy too has failed to take off with the company reporting that it expects to post a loss of $385.5 million after sales plunged 33% for the quarter ending Nov. 26, due to lower customer traffic and reduced levels of inventory availability among other factors.

The company is scheduled to report its full third quarter results on Tuesday.

“The turnaround plan put in place last year is not working. … Put bluntly, the business is moving at rapid speed in the wrong direction with bankruptcy the most likely destination,” GlobalData analyst Neil Saunders said.

Bed Bath & Beyond has enlisted turnaround and consulting firm AlixPartners LLP to help advise on options for addressing its financial woes, people familiar with the matter said.

In addition to AlixPartners, the company is being advised by restructuring lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and investment bankers at Lazard Ltd (LAZ.N), one of the people said.

AlixPartners and Lazard declined to comment. Kirkland did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement to Reuters late on Thursday, Bed Bath & Beyond said it was “working with strategic advisors to evaluate all paths to regain market share and enhance liquidity” but could not comment further on specific relationships.

The company became a meme stock last year when its shares soared more than 400%. Activist investor Ryan Cohen, the chairman of GameStop Corp (GME.N), took a stake in Bed Bath & Beyond, which he later sold, sending shares crashing.

Bed Bath & Beyond in its prior financial update in the fall said it had liquidity of $850 million but had burned through $325 million in the second quarter.

The company had also been asking bondholders to swap out their holdings for new debt to give it more breathing room to turn around its business but canceled the deal on Thursday after not getting much interest from investors, according to filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bed Bath & Beyond had earlier considered selling its valuable buybuy Baby stores that sell goods for infants and toddlers but held off in the hopes it could later fetch a higher price, Reuters reported.

buybuy Baby is the “crown jewel” asset of the company and would likely generate the most interest from buyers in case the parent company decides to sell it as part of its restructuring efforts, Michael Baker, senior research analyst at DA Davidson said, without providing a valuation on the business.

The value of the chain helped the retailer ink a $375 million loan last year, the maximum amount it could borrow.

Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru and Siddharth Cavale in New York ; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Subhranshu Sahu, Mark Porter and Anna Driver

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Jessica DiNapoli

Thomson Reuters

New York-based reporter covering U.S. consumer products spanning from paper towels to packaged food, the companies that make them and how they’re responding to the economy. Previously reported on corporate boards and distressed companies.

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Business

Buffett’s Berkshire discloses $4.1 bln TSMC stake

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Nov 14 (Reuters) – Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) said it bought more than $4.1 billion of stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW), , a rare significant foray into the technology sector by billionaire Warren Buffett’s conglomerate.

The news sent shares in TSMC up more than 6% in Taiwan on Tuesday, as it boosted investor sentiment for the world’s largest contract chipmaker, which saw its shares hit a two-year low last month due to a sharp slowdown in global chip demand.

In a Monday regulatory filing describing its U.S.-listed equity investments as of Sept. 30, Berkshire said it owned about 60.1 million American depositary shares of TSMC.

Berkshire also disclosed new stakes of $297 million in building materials company Louisiana-Pacific Corp (LPX.N) and $13 million in Jefferies Financial Group Inc (JEF.N). It exited an investment in Store Capital Corp (STOR.N), a real estate company that agreed in September to be taken private.

The filing did not specify whether Buffett or his portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler made specific purchases and sales. Investors often try to piggy back on what Berkshire buys. Larger investments are normally Buffett’s.

While Berkshire does not normally make big technology bets, it often prefers companies it perceives to have competitive advantages, often through their size.

TSMC, which makes chips for the likes of Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Qulacomm (QCOM.O) and Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O), posted an 80% jump in quarterly profit last month, but struck a more cautious note than usual on upcoming demand.

“I suspect Berkshire has a belief that the world cannot do without the products manufactured by Taiwan Semi,” said Tom Russo, a partner at Gardner, Russo & Quinn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which owns Berkshire shares.

“Only a small number of companies that can amass the capital to deliver semiconductors, which are increasingly central to people’s lives,” he added.

Berkshire has had mixed success in technology.

Its more than six-year wager during the last decade in IBM Corp (IBM.N) did not pan out, but Berkshire is sitting on huge unrealized gains on its $126.5 billion stake in Apple, which Buffett views more as a consumer products company.

Apple is by far the largest investment in Berkshire’s $306.2 billion equity portfolio.

Berkshire disclosed the TSMC stake about 2-1/2 months after it began reducing a decade-old, multi-billion dollar stake in BYD Co (002594.SZ), China’s largest electric car company.

In the third quarter, Berkshire added to its stakes in Chevron Corp (CVX.N), Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY.N), Celanese Corp (CE.N), Paramount Global (PARA.O) and RH (RH.N).

It also sold shares of Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK.N), General Motors Co (GM.N), Kroger Co (KR.N) and US Bancorp (USB.N).

Buffett, 92, has run Berkshire since 1965. The Omaha, Nebraska-based company also owns dozens of businesses such as the BNSF railroad, the Geico auto insurer, several energy and industrial companies, Fruit of the Loom and Dairy Queen.

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Bradley Perrett

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Wall Street ends busy post-summer session in the red

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  • ISM services sector data beats estimates
  • Bed Bath & Beyond shares sink after CFO’s death
  • Wall St coming off three straight week of declines
  • Dow down 0.55%, S&P 500 down 0.41%, Nasdaq down 0.74%

NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes closed lower on Tuesday, the first session after the U.S. Labor Day holiday and summer vacations, as traders assessed fresh economic data in volatile trading.

A survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showed the U.S. services industry picked up in August for the second straight month amid stronger order growth and employment, while supply bottlenecks and price pressures eased. read more

However, numbers from S&P Global showed the services sector Purchasing Managers’ Index fell short of flash estimates for August.

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A stronger-than-expected reading on the U.S. services sector fueled expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates to tame inflation.

“The Fed has relegated us to being very data dependent, so every piece of information that comes out investors are going to look not only at the absolute level, but try to infer what that means for when the Fed meets,” said Carol Schleif, deputy chief investment officer at BMO Family Office.

“One of the things that is disconcerting to investors is that there’s really little to propel markets either up solidly or down solidly,” she added.

Concerns over the supply of energy to Europe and how COVID-19 lockdowns will impact China’s economy also drove markets down on Tuesday, said Shawn Cruz, head trading strategist at TD Ameritrade. “A lot of uncertainty and volatility is not coming from the U.S.; it’s actually coming from overseas.”

The tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) suffered its seventh consecutive day of losses, its longest losing streak since November 2016.

Rate-sensitive shares of Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) fell about 1% as benchmark U.S. Treasury yields rose to their highest levels since June. Apple Inc (AAPL.O), which will launch new iPhones next Wednesday, lost 0.8.

Traders see a 74% chance of a third consecutive 75-basis-point rate hike at the Fed’s policy meeting later this month, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.

The focus will be on Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on Thursday as well U.S. consumer price data next week for clues on the path of monetary policy.

Markets started September on a weak note, extending a slide that started at the end of August, as hawkish comments from Fed policymakers and data signaling U.S. economicmomentum raised fears of aggressive interest rate hikes.

The S&P is down nearly 18% so far this year, while the Nasdaq has shed over 26% as rising interest rates hurt megacap technology and growth stocks.

Among the major S&P sectors, energy (.SPNY) and communication services (.SPLRCL) were the worst performers, while defensive utilities (.SPLRCU) and real estate (.SPLRCR) rose.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) fell 173.14 points, or 0.55%, to 31,145.3; the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 16.07 points, or 0.41%, to 3,908.19; and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) dropped 85.96 points, or 0.74%, to 11,544.91.

The CBOE Volatility index (.VIX), known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, touched a near two-month high of 27.80 before closing at 26.91.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) tumbled 18.4% after Chief Financial Officer Gustavo Arnal fell to his death from New York’s Tribeca skyscraper. read more

Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC.O) fell 11.4% after Reuters reported the blank-check acquisition firm that had agreed to merge with former U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media company failed to secure enough shareholder support for an extension to complete the deal.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.71 billion shares, compared with the 10.46 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by a 2.46-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.12-to-1 ratio favored decliners.

The S&P 500 posted no new 52-week highs and 29 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 19 new highs and 317 new lows.

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Reporting by Carolina Mandl, in New York, and additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar and Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Maju Samuel and Richard Chang

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Business

Bed Bath & Beyond CFO dies after falling from New York’s Jenga tower

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Sept 4 (Reuters) – Bed Bath & Beyond Inc’s (BBBY.O) chief financial officer fell to his death from New York’s Tribeca skyscraper known as the “Jenga” tower on Friday afternoon, police said on Sunday, days after the struggling retailer announced it was closing stores and laying off workers.

Gustavo Arnal, 52, joined Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY.O) in 2020. He previously worked as CFO for cosmetics brand Avon in London and had a 20-year stint with Procter & Gamble (PG.N), according to his LinkedIn profile.

On Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET (1630 GMT), police responded to a 911 call and found a 52-year-old man dead near the building who suffered injuries from a fall. Police identified the man as Gustavo Arnal.

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The police statement did not provide further details on the circumstances leading to Arnal’s death and said the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office would determine the cause of death. Bed Bath & Beyond confirmed his death in a press statement on Sunday but gave no details.

The big-box chain – once considered a so-called “category killer” in home and bath goods – has seen its fortunes falter after an attempt to sell more of its own brand, or private-label goods.

Last week, Bed Bath & Beyond said it would close 150 stores, cut jobs and overhaul its merchandising strategy in an attempt to turn around its money-losing business.

It forecast a bigger-than-expected 26% slump in same-store sales for the second quarter and said it would retain its buybuy Baby business, which it had put up for sale. read more

Signage is seen at a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., June 29, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

Arnal sold 55,013 shares in Bed Bath & Beyond in multiple transactions on Aug. 16-17, Reuters’ calculations showed based on SEC filings. The sales amounted to about $1.4 million, and Arnal still had almost 255,400 shares remaining.

On Aug. 23, the company, Arnal and major shareholder Ryan Cohen were sued over accusations of artificially inflating the firm’s stock price in a “pump and dump” scheme, with the lawsuit alleging Arnal sold off his shares at a higher price after the scheme.

The class action lawsuit listed Arnal as one of the defendants and was brought by a group of shareholders who claimed they lost around $1.2 billion.

The filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleged that Arnal “agreed to regulate all insider sales by BBBY’s officers and directors to ensure that the market would not be inundated with a large number of BBBY shares at a given time.”

The lawsuit also alleged that he issued materially misleading statements to investors.

The company said it was “in the early stages of evaluating the complaint, but based on current knowledge the company believes the claims are without merit.”

Shares in Bed Bath & Beyond have been highly volatile in recent months, being viewed as a so-called “meme” stock, which trade more on social media sentiment than economic fundamentals.

Cohen, a billionaire investor, disclosed a stake of nearly 10% in early March. Cohen’s RC Ventures disclosed plans to sell its stake on Aug. 17. read more

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Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Deepa Babington

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Bed Bath & Beyond to cut jobs, close stores in bid to reverse losses

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Aug 31 (Reuters) – Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) on Wednesday said it inked deals for more than $500 million in new financing and that it would close 150 stores, cut jobs and overhaul its merchandising strategy in an attempt to turn around its money-losing business.

Investors, however, remain concerned that the retailer’s plan, announced in a strategic update, will do little to improve Bed Bath & Beyond’s business as shares fell 25%. The retailer also announced a plan to raise money by issuing new shares.

The big-box chain – once considered a so-called “category killer” in home and bath goods – has seen its fortunes falter after an attempt to sell more of its own brand, or private label, goods. The COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain crunch and consumer pullback on shopping due to sky-high inflation also hit the chain’s sales.

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Bed Bath & Beyond forecast a bigger-than-expected 26% slump in same-store sales for the second quarter and said it would retain its buybuy Baby business, which it had put up for sale.

The efforts to sell buybuy Baby had been encouraged by GameStop Corp (GME.N) Chairman Ryan Cohen, the company’s biggest investor until this month when he sold out of his 9.8% stake, sending shares plummeting.

Once known for providing many shoppers with 20%-off coupons, Bed Bath & Beyond revamped its merchandise in recent years to focus on private-label products including its Our Table brand cookware. read more

The chain is now ditching that strategy, nixing three of its private label brands, and reprioritizing national brands with labels including Calphalon, Ugg, Dyson and Cuisinart underpinning that strategy, executives said on a conference call.

Executives said Bed Bath & Beyond is cutting about 20% of its corporate and supply chain workforce, and eliminating its chief operating officer and chief stores officer roles. The company has about 32,000 employees.

Top brass tried to reassure analysts that vendors were still supporting the company, a key indication of its long-term financial prospects. Suppliers will ask for more money up front or stop shipping goods if they believe retailers can no longer pay them.

Signage is seen at a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., June 29, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

“As we have managed through our cash burn, we have seen changes in vendors we manage,” said Chief Financial Officer Gustavo Arnal, adding that the company is managing the situation “one by one.”

First-quarter sales plunged 25% and it lost $358 million, leading to the firing of its Chief Executive Officer Mark Tritton in June. The company hired Sue Gove, an independent board director, to replace him on an interim basis.

On Wednesday, Gove said the retailer was “continuing to see significant positive momentum” and intended to build its “deep heritage as a retailer.”

“While there is much work ahead, our road map is clear and we’re confident that the significant changes we’ve announced today will have a positive impact on our performance'” she said on a conference call.

The retailer also said it expanded an existing loan and received a new $375 million “first-in-last-out” loan, and would launch a stock offering of up to 12 million shares.

Arnal said that 50 to 60 stores will be closed in a “first wave” heading into the balance of Bed Bath & Beyond’s fiscal year, which ends in February. The company has about 900 stores.

“They are running out of cash and desperately need to raise cash just to keep the business going,” said Jim Dixon, equity sales trader at Mirabaud.

To improve its finances, the retailer said it would cut back on selling, general and administrative expenses by $250 million this year versus last year and rein in capital spending.

The company also estimates that comparable-store sales will drop 20% this year as it works through its transformation.

“We are broadly satisfied that the measures announced today … will ease the pressure on the company, allowing it to continue trading,” said Neil Saunders, GlobalData’s managing director.

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Reporting by Uday Sampath and Deborah Sophia and Bansari Kamdar in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Siddharth Cavale, Jessica DiNapoli and Arriana Mclymore in New York;
Editing by Arun Koyyur and Jonathan Oatis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Ryan Cohen’s $60 million Bed Bath u-turn triggers meme stock investor ire

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An exterior view shows a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Novi, Michigan, U.S., January 29, 2021. REUTERS/Emily Elconin

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Aug 19 (Reuters) – Investors flooded social media platforms such as Reddit on Friday with criticism of Ryan Cohen’s sale of his stake in Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O), blaming him for helping fuel a meme stock rally only to then walk away with a $60 million profit.

The billionaire investor disclosed on Thursday he had sold his 9.8% stake in the struggling home goods retailer, almost five months after amassing it and pushing for changes. In response, the company ousted its chief executive, changed some board directors and agreed to explore shedding its baby products unit. read more

Cohen stands to earn a profit before taxes of between $55 million and $60 million on the stock sale, according to a Reuters review of regulatory filings and a person familiar with the matter.

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Cohen did not offer a reason for the u-turn and did not respond to requests for comment. He built a following last year of loyal individual investors who bet on his turnaround of video game retailer GameStop Corp (GME.N), some of whom expressed fury and disbelief after they followed his lead on Bed Bath only to see him abruptly cash out.

Cohen sold his Bed Bath stock on Tuesday and Wednesday after it rose 300% in August amid a speculative rally in meme stocks, a popular reference to shares traded by investors mostly based on hype in social media rather than their economic fundamentals.

Bed Bath & Beyond shares, which briefly hit $30 this month, finished Thursday at $18.55, falling 20% after filings revealed Cohen planned to sell his shares. It plunged another 44% in after-hours trading after filings showed that he had sold all of his shares. read more

The stock was on course to open 43% lower on Friday, erasing all of the week’s gains.

“The writing is on the wall that Bed Bath & Beyond shares have again decoupled from economic reality,” Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fadem said.

Ryan Bennett, a 43-year-old agriculture worker in Beloit, Wisconsin, told Reuters he lost more than $40,000 because he followed Cohen in buying Bed Bath shares.

“I feel I took my hard-earned money out of my pocket and put it right into Cohen’s,” Bennett said.

Bed Bath said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it was working with external financial advisors and lenders on strengthening its balance sheet, an admission that it needs to raise capital to stay afloat. The company had a mountain of long-term debt totaling $1.38 billion and only $107.5 million in cash as of the end of May, according to its most recent financial disclosure.

The investor reaction raises questions over whether Cohen will continue to exert strong influence over meme stock loyalists. On Wallstreetbets, the Reddit forum frequented by such investors, some lamented their losses and Cohen’s role.

“After reading what Ryan Cohen just did, I hope you all understand that he is not one of us,” one of the posters that goes by the name of Ronpm111 wrote.

Shares of GameStop, in which Ryan holds a 12% stake and serves as chairman, have dropped 20% since he disclosed his Bed Bath stock sale. This raised questions among many investors, including Bennett, over whether Cohen’s stock sale at Bed Bath will weigh on GameStop’s status as a meme stock.

“I don’t know if I can trust him to hold a stake in GameStop. I’ll probably be looking to exit that,” Bennett said.

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Reporting by Krystal Hu and Angelique Chen in New York and Svea Hebst-Bayliss in Rhode Island; Additional reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Greg Roumeliotis and Jacqueline Wong

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Business

Bed Bath & Beyond replaces CEO Tritton as sales sink

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June 29 (Reuters) – Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (BBBY.O) on Wednesday replaced Chief Executive Officer Mark Tritton as part of a management shake-up to reverse a slump in its business, the home goods retailer said.

Shares fell 13% in premarket trading as the company’s first-quarter net sales slumped 25%, rounding off a year of sales slipping below market expectations.

The rejig at the top management comes just a few months after activist investor and billionaire Ryan Cohen criticized the retailer for an “overly ambitious” strategy, overpaying top executives and failing to reverse market share losses.

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Cohen, who is also the chairman of GameStop Corp (GME.N), had disapproved of Tritton’s $27 million compensation over the last two years, saying it was far more than what top bosses earned at bigger retailers including Macy’s (M.N), Kohl’s (KSS.N), and Dollar Tree (DLTR.O).

An exterior view shows a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Novi, Michigan, U.S., January 29, 2021. REUTERS/Emily Elconin

“Mr. Tritton should recognize that chief executives who are awarded outsized compensation and seek frequent publicity also invite much higher expectations when it comes to growth and shareholder value creation,” Cohen said in March.

The company subsequently reached an agreement with Cohen by appointing three new directors, two of them to the committee exploring options for its baby products unit.

On Wednesday, it named the head of the strategy committee and independent director Sue Gove as Tritton’s replacement on an interim basis.

Tritton was made CEO in 2019 soon after the retailer settled with another set of activist investors who had criticized it for failing to adapt quickly to a shift in consumer preference to shop online.

Bed Bath & Beyond also replaced its chief merchandising officer Joe Hartsig with Mara Sirhal, general manager of its Harmon health and beauty stores, as it looks to overcome supply chain issues that have plagued it for most of the pandemic.

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Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Entertainment

‘RHOM’ star Lisa Hochstein ‘blindsided’ by Lenny divorce

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Lisa Hochstein says she was “blindsided” by husband Lenny Hochstein’s decision to divorce her after 12 years of marriage.

“With two young children involved, as a mom I’m going to focus all of my energy and time on them,” the “Real Housewives of Miami” star said in an exclusive statement to Page Six via her spokesperson Monday.

“I’m blindsided by his behavior and reckless handling of the situation,” she added.

Lisa, 39, and Lenny, 55, share two children: son Logan, 6, and daughter Elle, 2.

Lenny announced to Page Six exclusively Monday that he was divorcing Lisa and also confirmed he is seeing someone new.

“Lisa and I are getting divorced,” he told us over the phone. “A few weeks ago, I denied this because I am trying my best to protect my family during this process. This is a very difficult time, and I would ask for some privacy so that we can best take care of our children who mean the world to us.”

Lenny shared that he is dating Austrian model Katharina Mazepa but claimed “none of this happened until after the decision was made to get divorced.”

“I’m going to focus all of my energy and time [on my kids],” Lisa told us.
Getty Images for Smile Train

The plastic surgeon originally denied to Page Six that he and Lisa were heading for Splitsville after we broke the news that he and his now-estranged wife had a public “showdown” at a nightclub where the reality star had confronted him and Mazepa on May 7.

“They were all there, and they did have words,” an insider revealed, adding, “A drink was thrown.”

Another source told us, “There was a showdown at Gala Miami,” claiming Lenny walked in with his “new girlfriend.”

“Lisa got in her face and yelled at her,” the second source added.

Lenny was also caught on video getting handsy with Mazepa while on a double date Friday night at Miami hotspot Prime 112.

A friend of Lisa’s told Page Six exclusively, “She’s devastated and disgusted that he would do this to his children,” adding, “The way he’s out flaunting it is gross.”

Lenny has yet to file for divorce.

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