News

Bed Bath & Beyond’s stores might be disappearing. But the home-goods retailer will survive in online form, following Overstock.com Inc.’s deal announced Wednesday to acquire and revive the bankrupt chain’s website and loyalty program.

Overstock on Wednesday said it had it had acquired Bed Bath & Beyond’s brand and intellectual property, a day after a bankruptcy judge approved the online furniture site’s $21.5 million bid to buy the assets.

The deal will hand Bed Bath & Beyond’s website and domain names, customer database, loyalty program data, and trademarks and patents to Overstock. It does not include stores or inventory, or Buy Buy Baby, a baby-merchandise retailer that Bed Bath & Beyond bought in 2007. A separate auction for Buy Buy Baby was set for Wednesday.

Overstock said that within the next week, it will relaunch the Bed Bath & Beyond domain in Canada. And it said that “weeks later,” it would set up a new website, mobile app and loyalty program in the U.S.

The online furniture retailer said customers of both Overstock and Bed Bath & Beyond would be able to shop online at bedbathandbeyond.ca in Canada and bedbathandbeyond.com in the U.S.

Shares of Overstock were up 3.4% after hours. Over-the-counter trading of Bed Bath & Beyond BBBYQ, +4.61% stock was quiet after hours, with shares up fractionally.

Overstock on Wednesday also said it would re-brand its Club O loyalty program as Welcome Rewards.

The company said that for the second quarter so far, sales were likely down in the “low-20% range” when compared to last year.

“The promotional and marketing environment has remained highly competitive due to the weak consumer sentiment within a challenging economic backdrop and changes in consumer spending preferences,” executives said.