Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. BYND, -3.86% shot up 8.6% in premarket trading Friday, after the home goods retailer announced a “cooperation agreement” with activist investor Ryan Cohen and RC Ventures LLC. As part of the agreement, Bed Bath will add three of RC Ventures’ nominees to its board as new independent directors. Cohen and RC Ventures, which are beneficial owners of 9.8% of Bed Bath’s outstanding shares, have criticized the company’s “scattershot strategy” that has failed to stem the “tailspin” in its business that has persisted since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and urged the company to look for ways to unlock value for shareholders. Cohen is the co-founder of Chewy Inc. CHWY, +0.83% and chairman of GameStop Corp. GME, +6.71% Bed Bath’s stock has run up 51.6% year to date, but has tumbled 23.3% over the past 12 months. In comparison, the SPDR S&P Retail ETF XRT, -1.31% has lost 9.5% over the past year while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.51% has rallied 15.6%.
