By GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen plans to sell his 10% stake in retailer Bed Bath & Beyond, the activist investor said this week in an SEC filing.
According to the Tuesday (Aug. 16) filing, Cohen’s RC Ventures hopes to sell 9.4 million shares of Bed Bath & Beyond, valued at $148.5 million.
Cohen, who also founded the eCommerce pet supply company Chewy, first revealed his stake in BBB in March. At the time, his efforts to get the company to consider a sale caused Bed Bath & Beyond’s shares to skyrocket.
He urged the company to winnow down the scope of its turnaround plan, make efforts to ensure its inventory mix jibed with demand, and consider selling its Buybuy Baby offshoot, if not the entire company.
See also: Bed Bath & Beyond Bleeds Cash, Seeks Buybuy Baby Buyer
Cohen had argued that Buybuy Baby could be worth several billion dollars and the company as a whole would be better off under the care of a private equity firm.
Weeks later, Cohen and BBB seemed to have reached a détente, with the retailer adding three new board members as part of a cooperation agreement with Cohen and RC Ventures.
Read more: Bed Bath & Beyond Soars as Activist Investor Ryan Cohen Pivots From GameStop to Housewares
In June, the company announced it was replacing CEO Mark Tritton after another disappointing earnings report, replacing him — in the interim — with board member Sue Gove. That report showed a 27% decline in comparable sales, which the company attributed to a “rapid” shift in consumer spending habits and a decline in demand in the home sector.
Two days later, news broke that Bed Bath & Beyond was seeking a buyer for Buybuy Baby as it hemorrhaged cash: The company had reportedly spent $300 million in reserve funds and borrowed $200 million from its credit line. Last summer, BBB had $ 1 billion in cash reserves.
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