Bed Bath & Beyond CFO commits suicide

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc (NASDAQ: BBBY) is down roughly 15% this morning after its CFO “Gustavo Arnal” committed suicide over the weekend.

Laura Crossen to serve as interim finance chief

Arnal joined the chain of domestic merchandise retail stores just after the start of the pandemic in 2020. Before that, he was at Avon. Making an official statement on the unfortunate event, Bed Bath & Beyond said:

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Arnal was instrumental in guiding the organisation throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Arnal also had about twenty years of experience at Procter & Gamble. The retailer named Laura Crossen its interim CFO on Tuesday as it looks for a permanent replacement.

Crossen is also the Chief Accounting Officer at Bed Bath & Beyond – a position she’ll continue to hold. The retailer is already operating under an interim CEO (Sue Gove) after Mark Tritton was ousted in June.

Goldman Sachs says ‘BBBY’ is worth $2.0 only

The meme stock is now down more than 60% versus its recent high even though the Union-headquartered firm secured new financing worth $500 million last week and announced store closures and layoffs to cut costs.

It also eliminated two executive roles – Chief Operating Officer and Chief Stores Officer. But none of that is sufficient to excite Goldman Sachs.

On Tuesday, the investment bank reiterated its $2.0 a share price objective on Bed Bath & Beyond that represents another 70% downside from here. In June, the Nasdaq-listed firm reported broadly disappointing results for its fiscal first quarter.