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CNBC: The new Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO is out, days after activist firm called for his ouster

  |   By Polling+ Staff

Signage is displayed outside a permanently closed Bed Bath & Beyond retail store in Hawthorne, California, on May 1, 2023. - - The home goods chain filed voluntary petitions for relief on April 23, 2023 under Chapter 11 at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, a court filing showed. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Uh-oh.

CNBC headlines: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/06/bed-bath-beyond-ceo-quits-amid-overstock-transition.html

The new Bed Bath & Beyond’s CEO is out, days after activist firm called for his ouster

The story reports:

“The new Bed Bath & Beyond announced Monday its CEO, Jonathan Johnson, is immediately stepping down from his position just days after activist hedge fund JAT Capital called for his ouster.

JAT Capital, which has a 9.6% stake in the company, sent a letter to the board dated Thursday that blamed Johnson for the company’s poor financial performance and said he needs to be ‘removed immediately.’

‘He has performed poorly (as demonstrated by the company’s financials relative to its peer group), he has communicated poorly with investors and the sell-side community and he has recently taken actions that give the appearance that his own interests are being prioritized,’ said the letter, which was revealed in a securities filing.

In the letter, JAT said Marcus Lemonis, the Camping World

CEO and TV personality who starred in CNBC’s “The Profit,” should take over management of the company. He joined the Overstock board last month and has cheered its transition to Beyond Inc., which took effect Monday.

Johnson had been Overstock’s chief executive since 2019. He led the company through its acquisition of Bed Bath & Beyond earlier this year. 

David Nielsen, Beyond’s president and a former Payless ShoeSource executive, has taken over as interim CEO while the board undergoes a search for a permanent candidate.”

As someone who was once a regular BB&B customer, my take was they started to get off track when they made a big deal about no longer carrying Mike Lindell’s “My Pillow” products, once on vivid display in my local store. It seemed bizarre that a corporate leadership would pull a very popular product because they hated the company founder’s politics. It wasn’t rocket science to realize that Trump supporting customers would see the attack on Mike Lindell as an attack on themselves – and stop going.

I myself cut down my own Saturday time spent browsing. And now the Bed Bath and Beyond that was a hangout is gone. Vanished from the local mall.

At the time of the attack on Lindell I took a look at the behind-the-scenes in a piece for The American Spectator, and discovered this: https://spectator.org/mypillow-bed-bath-beyond/

“ The company has ostentatiously decided to stop carrying MyPillow products because they have it in for MyPillow founder and quite visible Trump supporter Mike Lindell. 

And unsurprisingly, cross-match the corporate governing officers of Bed Bath & Beyond with Federal Election Commission (FEC) records and, lo and behold, one finds … yes indeed … a far-left Trump-hater in a senior position at the company.

That would be Harriet Edelman. Ms. Edelman is listed as a special adviser to the chairman of Emigrant Bank who is the ‘independent chair’ of the Bed Bath & Beyond board of directors. And sure enough, over there at the FEC she is listed as a 12-time contributor to everything from the Trump-hating Lincoln Project ($1000 and $500) to Biden for President ($2800 and $500) to Democrat senators Doug Jones of Alabama and Ohio’s Sherrod Brown.

In other words, the company that has punished its Trump-supporting customers by pulling its MyPillow merchandise has as its ‘independent chair’ someone who is, per her record of contributions, a staunch leftist and Trump-hater.”

Once upon a time a company’s motto was “the customer is always right.”

Obviously, no longer at BB&B.

And they are paying the price.