Even though Bed Bath & Beyond has sold its IP to Overstock and is in the midst of liquidating its stores, a group of meme stock investors is still betting on the company, driving share prices up by more than 360% since May 2.
The reason is a complicated one that involves retail traders on Reddit, meme stock king Ryan Cohen, children’s books and an Evel Knievel–like leap of faith.
As part of its bankruptcy filing, shares of the home retailer were delisted from the Nasdaq, but they’re still traded on the OTC market as the company winds down its business. That’s standard practice, though investors largely don’t pay any attention to shares of a company that’s shutting down, since…well, they’re not likely to see any sort of return.
Retail investors, though, often tend to follow a different set of rules—and logic. Since May 2, the OTC share price of BBBYQ stock has climbed from $0.0751 to $0.2738 in midmorning trading Friday. In real-world dollars, that’s hardly a GameStop-like rise, but in overall percentages, it’s not that different. (That company’s stock notched a 400% gain in early 2021.)
Me and my buddy on the moon after $TEDDY $BBBYQ pic.twitter.com/P1rozZEP4D
— Rambo 🦍 (@Ape_Rambo) July 5, 2023
Here’s what the chatter on Twitter and Reddit is…theorizing. Traders have noted a trademark application by a company called Teddy Holdings to operate an online market selling everything from towels and picture frames to children’s bedtime stories.
The address for Teddy Holdings is the same as the one for Teddy Publishing, a company that publishes books authored by, yep, Ryan Cohen.
The logical leap some investors are making is that Cohen is preparing to play a role in the ongoing bankruptcy of Bed Bath & Beyond, via Teddy.
That’s despite the fact that the company’s IP has already been sold—and Cohen ditched the stock publicly last August. As always with meme stocks, stay tuned.