Bed Bath & Beyond is sued by ousted CEO over unpaid severance
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, March 31 (Reuters) -Bed Bath & Beyond Inc BBBY.O was sued on Friday by Mark Tritton, who was ousted last June as chief executive of the troubled home goods retailer, in a complaint accusing the company of failing to honor his $6,765,000 severance agreement.
According to the complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, Tritton said Bed Bath & Beyond stopped making required bi-monthly payments in January, with its chief legal officer citing the need to preserve cash as the sole reason.
In those discussions, Bed Bath & Beyond "conceded Tritton was (and is) entitled" to severance payments, under his agreement dated four days after he was replaced as chief executive, the complaint said.
Tritton also accused the company of "bad faith" for proposing a "buyout" of his severance at a discount but only if performance improves, even as it has resumed paying severance to some former employees.
Bed Bath & Beyond did not immediately respond to requests for comment after business hours. Tritton's lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests.
The Union, New Jersey-based company is trying to turn around its business after taking on too much debt, being slow to embrace online sales and alienating consumers by de-emphasizing brand-name products.
Bed Bath & Beyond is closing hundreds of stores, and on Thursday announced plans to sell up to $300 million of stock.
It also estimated that sales in stores open at least one year fell 40% to 50% in the quarter ending Feb. 25, and again warned that bankruptcy was possible if its turnaround failed.
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond closed down 16.6 cents at a record closing low of 42.7 cents on Friday.
The company is one of several "meme" stocks, and its shares traded at $30 as recently as last August.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Will Dunham
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
