Overstock.com stock spikes after company announces website rebrand

Shares of Overstock.com spiked nearly 20% on Thursday, a day after the e-commerce home goods retailer announced it would renaming website to Bed Bath & Beyond after buying up the intellectual property and digital assets of the decaying retailer through a bankruptcy auction.

Shares closed the session at $30 a share, giving Overstock a market valuation of about $1.3 billion.

Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson said the Overstock name reflects the company’s previous liquidation-based model and doesn’t fit the type of product the company currently sells.

“We started more than 20 years ago as liquidators and became general sellers. Now we are furniture and home furnishings company and there [were] a lot of problems with the Overstock name, disadvantages to customers who are confused about who we are and what we are selling, disadvantages to suppliers who don’t necessarily want to sell if it involves liquidation,” Johnson told CNBC’s “The Exchange.”

Johnson said Bed Bath & Beyond maintained strong brand awareness, despite mismanagement and eventual bankruptcy.

Brands have shared overlapping customers, says Johnson, which should make the transition easier.

“We’ll make this transition gradually as Overstock customers will land on the new site and recognize it, but so will Bed Bath & Beyond customers. And then over time, We’re going to remove the feel of Overstock,” he added.

Johnson said shoppers can expect popular Bed Bath & Beyond coupons to persist, at least in the interim, but noted on a call with analysts earlier on Thursday that the company won’t drop prices as much or as deeply in the long run.

“One thing Bed Bath & Beyond customers will find is that our coupon-free rates are really good. And I think people will be amazed at the deals that Overstock and now Bed Bath have to offer. & Beyond can deliver and has been provided,” he said.

The new Bed Bath & Beyond website will be relaunched in Canada over the next week, with further launches of a website, mobile app and loyalty program in the US expected in the coming weeks. the coming weeks.

Shares of Overstock are up nearly 60% this year.