Beyond, the publicly traded company behind Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock, confirmed Thursday that it has acquired brand assets from Zulily, the online retailer that shut down last year.
Beyond — led by Marcus Lemonis, star of CNBC’s reality TV show “The Profit” — paid $4.5 million in cash to buy Zulily’s website, domain names, trademarks, customer database, social media accounts, and software, the company said in a press release.
GeekWire reported late Wednesday that Beyond appeared to be the new owner following posts on social media teasing a relaunch.
With the acquisition, Beyond will get its hands on a business that reportedly generated $666 million in sales last year — even as the company laid off most of its workforce and went through a liquidation process as part of a surprising downfall.
Beyond said it plans to get Zulily up and running again by the end of May, bolstering its position in the “off-price market,” which focuses on selling discounted items.
Bed Bath & Beyond, the longtime chain retailer that specialized in housewares, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. Overstock, founded in 1997 as a surplus merchandise seller, acquired its intellectual property for $21.5 million in June and rebranded to Beyond.
“Zulily, in combination with our legacy brand, Overstock, will provide our vendors multiple outlets that, not only meet customers at various price points, but also offer an additional outlet to improve their inventory turns and financial performance,” Lemonis said in a statement.
Lemonis was named executive chairman of Beyond last month. He became famous for helping turn around failing small businesses when he starred on CNBC’s The Profit, which aired for eight seasons from 2013 to 2021.
“Bringing the trusted Zulily brand into our asset-light business model allows us to offer furniture and home furnishings, apparel and footwear, jewelry and watches, among other categories that are also core competencies of our off-price Overstock business with flash sale deal pricing,” Dave Nielsen, CEO of Overstock, said in a statement.
Zulily quickly grew from a small Seattle startup to an e-commerce powerhouse more than a decade ago with a unique flash sales model targeted at women and moms. The company was valued at $4 billion following its IPO a decade ago.
But as GeekWire detailed last month, the company eventually lost its identity and struggled to maintain a competitive moat. QVC parent Qurate acquired Zulily in 2015 for $2.4 billion, but wasn’t able to scale the business and ultimately sold the company to a little known private equity firm called Regent last May.
Regent said it planned to grow the retailer in new markets but instead laid off more than 800 employees across three states and put Zulily in liquidation in December.
Last month, Hilco Streambank, a New York company that specializes in selling intangible assets, announced it was seeking offers to acquire Zulily’s brand assets. Hilco said Zulily generated $666 million in sales last year from 2.5 million shoppers.
Beyond reported full-year revenue of $1.6 billion in 2023, down 19% year-over-year, and a net loss of $308 million. Active customers grew 9% to 5.6 million. The Midvale, Utah-based company had $302 million in cash and cash equivalents as of Dec. 31. Beyond’s stock is up more than 70% in the past six months.
“I did not join this company to be a peddler of products on the Internet,” Lemonis said on an earnings call with analysts last month. “I joined this company because I am 100% confident that I will turn this business into the AAA of the home business.”
Beyond said last month that it plans to relaunch Overstock’s site later this year.
A small group of Zulily employees remained at the company through the liquidation process.
Zulily has an ongoing lawsuit against Amazon alleging price-fixing and supplier coercion. The suit, filed in December, is based in part on allegations in the Federal Trade Commission’s separate antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.
The e-commerce market represented 22% of total retail sales in the U.S. last year, a new record, though growth of online sales have slowed considerably since the pandemic-fueled boom. Total e-commerce sales in the U.S. reached $1.11 trillion in 2023, up 7.6%, according to Digital Commerce 360.
