Bed Bath & Beyond's Push to Make Homeownership More Affordable

**Carol Massar** (0:02)
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**SPEAKER_2** (0:07)
You're listening to Bloomberg Businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Radio.

**Tim Stenovec** (0:14)
Today, though, Bed Bath & Beyond is very different than it was as a mall staple in the 90s. Earlier this month, it inquired installed right and SFV services to Detroit-based home installation and renovation companies. That was an all-stock transaction. A week ago, it bought Fathom Holdings, a tech-driven real estate services platform and an all-stock deal. When we last spoke to her in early April, she had just been named president. We're talking about Amy Sullivan. She's back with us. She's the president of Bed Bath & Beyond. She's the former CEO of the retail chain Kirklands, now also being integrated into Bed Bath & Beyond.

**Carol Massar** (0:45)
So great to have you back with us. Joining us again from Nashville. Hello, hello. Congratulations. I'm sure you're getting settled in.
What do you want Bed Bath & Beyond to be? Because we were on our planning call this morning, and you guys are picking up a lot of different companies. What's the plan here?

**Amy Sullivan** (1:03)
Yeah.
I think for us, our mission really is to make home ownership more simple and affordable to the consumer. That could be anything from our retail brands that are the essentials for your home or furnishing your home to the process of how you buy and sell and transact in your home. Then as you mentioned earlier, the SFV acquisition that we're working on really goes hand in hand with Cabinets to Go and Lumber Liquidators and how we think about bringing services into the consumer's home in an affordable way that's really all tied to a brand that let's be honest, the big blue coupon is the brand that everyone has loved for so many years and has a lot of affinity and trust for.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:41)
I imagine you're not done with acquisitions, Amy.

**Amy Sullivan** (1:45)
We're still building what we want to build for the future.

**Tim Stenovec** (1:49)
Yeah. Well, to Carol's point, what does that ultimately look like and what are the other types of companies that you'd bring into Bed Bath & Beyond family?

**Amy Sullivan** (1:57)
I think when you think about what we've done so far and the retail businesses you mentioned at the kickoff, the fathom transaction and the things in that space are really around the financial services and the buying of selling of homes and then that last home services piece, the foundation is there. As we think about potential other acquisitions or additions to our business, we want to stay really close to the consumer's neighborhood. I would think of anything else that comes in the future as fitting into one of those three pillars of our business. The retail business feels really solid at this point. We feel like we have brands that really service all facets of the home.
The fathom deal was a very big one in terms of the beginning of us thinking about how we help customers transact on their homes. But the home services part is the one where you can really get local and you can get closer to the consumer and their neighborhoods. So I would think of that home services, any way we can service the consumer's home, a man in a van, as we call it, that can be the person on call, we would probably continue to round out that part of our business and really localize how people see our company.

**Carol Massar** (3:02)
So help me understand the fathom holdings. As you said, it was a big deal, $53.38 million stock deal, all stock deal and implied equity value of about, again, $53.3 million.
They are a technology-driven real estate services platform. What exactly do they do and how does that fit in? Where will it fit into the financial picture? Where are on your balance sheet? I'm also curious about where the growth is going to ultimately be here.

**Amy Sullivan** (3:29)
Sure. I would think of our whole company and I'm glad you mentioned the technology foundation, because honestly, that's even when you think back to when Beyond and the overstock e-commerce business was the beginning part of the foundation of our company. We've always had this intention of being a very tech-driven organization, so using that technology, we want to be able to not only continue to service the customer in terms of understanding. If you think of the home ownership journey or the life of how a customer thinks about their home, customers tend to move into a new home or sell or buy a home every 11 years. When we think about what that transaction piece brings into our business, it's a marker.