To Infinity and Bed Bath & Beyond

🛏🛀📈 Shares of Bed Bath and Beyond opened up 86% yesterday following news that GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen acquired a ~10% stake and is pushing for changes. The stock fell back down to earth over the next few hours, but still ended the day up 34%.

• Cohen, who co-founded online pet retailer Chewy, wrote a letter to BB&B’s board saying he believes the retailer is struggling to navigate supply chain woes and win back lost market share. He also criticized top executives for taking large compensation packages during periods of underperformance.
• The billionaire investor recommended Bed Bath explore selling itself to private equity and spinning off its BuyBuy Baby chain, which he said is undervalued by the market.

📊 Zoom out: Cohen’s activism with GameStop in 2020 – which led to him being named company chairman – helped fuel its Reddit rally that saw share prices soar 1,500% over two weeks.

On the flip side, Bed Bath held off a trio of activist investors who were seeking to replace all 12 board members in 2019 (they settled for four plus the CEO).