Online retail company Beyond Inc. (NYSE: BYON) has acquired the intellectual property and brand assets of defunct online retailer Zulily for $4.5 million.
The acquisition, announced Thursday, is the latest turn in a tumultuous year for Seattle-based Zulily, which shut down in December after being sold to Los Angeles-based private equity firm Regent in May for an undisclosed amount. Beyond expects to relaunch the Zulily site by the end of the second quarter.
“Zulily, in combination with our legacy brand, Overstock, will provide our vendors multiple outlets that, not only meet customers at various price points, but also offer an additional outlet to improve their inventory turns and financial performance," Marcus Lemonis, executive chairman of Beyond, said in a news release.
Beyond is gaining the Zulily website and domain names, trademarks, trade names, customer database, social media accounts, software and goodwill from the brand. The deal doesn't include Zulily's liabilities, liens and debts. Beyond is funding the deal with cash on hand.
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Zulily, founded in 2009, offered clothing, toys, shoes and more. The company went public in 2013, when it had a reported valuation of $2.6 billion. In 2015, Qurate, then Liberty Interactive Corp., acquired the company for $2.4 billion. West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Qurate also owns the home shopping networks QVC and HSN. The company recently decided to focus on its core business of video streaming commerce, leading to the decision to sell Zulily to Regent.
Zulily had for years been known for its flash sales before pivoting to becoming more of an online superstore. The company went through multiple rounds of layoffs last year, including one just weeks after the sale to Regent, and Zulily exited the consumables business in July. Zulily's shutdown resulted in layoffs of 292 Seattle employees.
The company has also faced lawsuits from vendors alleging unpaid invoices. Multiple smaller vendors, meanwhile, complained of unpaid invoices from Zulily last year, and some filed complaints with the Washington state Attorney General's Office. Zulily in December decided to sell its assets to satisfy creditors.
In January, Boston-based liquidation firm Gordon Brothers announced it was selling all Zulily's inventory and two warehouses in private treaty sales. The inventory was valued at more than $85 million, but the firm didn't disclose the value of the two 775,000-square-foot warehouses, which are in Columbus, Ohio, and Sparks, Nevada. The firm also didn't disclose the value of the items in the warehouses.
Overstock in June bought Bed Bath & Beyond's intellectual property for $21.5 million after Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in April. Overstock in August relaunched its U.S. site as Bed Bath & Beyond, and the company rebranded its corporate name to Beyond in November. Midvale, Utah-based Beyond plans to relaunch Overstock's brand later in March.
Beyond generated $1.6 billion in revenue last year, down from $1.9 billion in 2022.
Lemonis is also the CEO and chairman of Camping World. From 2013 to 2021, he starred on the CNBC reality show "The Profit," in which he invested in and worked with faltering small businesses to turn them around.
