Bed Bath Begins Three-Week Countdown to Possible Bankruptcy (1)

It took Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. almost two months to raise $360 million in emergency financing from a hedge fund positioned to profit from the deal. It wasn’t enough.

Now, to avoid bankruptcy, the retailer has three weeks to squeeze another $300 million from equity markets that have largely turned against it after the deal diluted existing shareholders and sent its stock down 50%.

Cut off from direct access to its own cash and turning to third-party financing to convince some suppliers to ship merchandise, Bed Bath & Beyond is running low on options to dig itself out of ...