The bizarre world of Patrick Byrne's Overstock

[dimucci]

eccentric

That is the polite way to say it.

[Kristijntje]

A related article:

Overstock.com has problems, and its CEO wants you to believe they're your problems, too.

Patrick Byrne, the Internet retailer's chief executive, has called short-selling of his company's shares -- essentially a bet that their price will fall -- a conspiracy orchestrated by a "Sith Lord." He later likened the conspiracy to an organization structured like al Qaeda and said his stock has been targeted by "naked short-sellers," a practice that he said has ties to Italian, Russian and Israeli mafia and should worry lots of corporations and their shareholders.

This has attracted a lot of attention, much of it incredulous...

full article: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/13798439.htm

[mandy]

2 of Patrick Byrne's enemies receive subpoena's from the SEC:

In what amounted to a rare public reprimand, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox implied on Monday that the agency's San Francisco office acted without permission from the mother ship when it sent subpoenas to two financial journalists demanding records of their phone and e-mail communications with sources...

Meanwhile, the feud between Byrne and Greenberg continues.

On CNBC Monday, Byrne said of Gradient and Greenberg, "I'm talking about a crooked research firm hooking up with a crooked reporter."

Greenberg responded, "I deny everything (Byrne) says and I dare him to prove it."

full article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...HFKJG1.DTL

[mandy]

A related development:

Overstock.com wins round in court
Libel: A judge refuses to dismiss the Utah company's suit claiming a conspiracy to drive down its stock price

Overstock.com claimed a victory Wednesday in the first major courtroom test of its claims that two Wall Street firms conspired to drive down its share prices.

In his initial ruling from the bench after hearing oral arguments, Marin County (Calif.) Superior Court Judge Vernon Smith dismissed Gradient Analytics Inc.'s bid to dismiss a libel and unfair-business-practices suit brought by the Internet closeout retailer...

full article: http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_3560557

[amy]

By popular demand, More Patrick 

A former boxer, Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne has picked the ultimate (Wall) street fight.

Byrne sparked enormous controversy last summer by accusing a number of investment bankers, financial journalists and hedge fund managers of collaborating to ruin the reputations of companies in order to profit when the stock price of those companies tumbles. Byrne claims that his online store has been victimized by such a scheme.

In a now infamous summer conference call, he seethed over an alleged conspiracy--going so far as to say that it involved a mastermind he compared to a "Sith Lord," as well as people who had once trafficked in stinger missiles...

full article: http://news.com.com/2008-1030_3-6046300.html

[amy]

Patrick Byrne posted copies on the Overstock message boards of everything he's written  in the past year (about the people who are out to get him and his company).  Interesting reading--I think...

http://forums.auctions.overstock.com/viewforum.php?f=98

[thentavius]

Can you copy a few juicy tidbits here?

[rossellini]

He is such an mileyazwipe:

[mandy]

The latest installment in this apparently never ending saga  :

Overstock.com Celebrates Receipt of SEC Subpoena

Overstock.com® (Nasdaq: OSTK) announced that today it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning issues and requesting information outlined below.

Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne said, "I may be the first CEO in history to celebrate receiving an SEC subpoena. Some of the requests suggest the whispering of the blackguards, but I remain unconcerned about their hokum. In truth, I am gratified to see that the SEC is looking into the issues about which I have been speaking: I believe our capital markets are broken in a deep way, our system of corporate voting and governance is a hoax, the savings of Americans are being drained through our financial system's fissure of unsettled trades, and the system appears to be cracking around Overstock.com (of course, I could be proved wrong if they would force the settlement of, or even reveal the size of, all unsettled trades in OSTK, which I believe number from 7 to 30 million shares). While some of the miscreants file frivolous delaying motions, and others schmooze with hedge funds and write what they are told to write (yet call themselves 'journalists' to shield their perfidy behind the First Amendment), I on the other hand applaud the SEC's actions and eagerly anticipate my chance to get these issues into court."

The subpoena requests a broad range of documents, including, all documents relating to the Company's accounting policies, targets, projections, estimates, recent restatement, new technology systems and their implementation, and communications with and regarding analysts. In addition, the subpoena requests all information relating to the filing of its complaint against Gradient Analytics, Inc., communications regarding shareholders who did not receive the Company's proxy statement in April 2006, communications with shareholders, and communications regarding short selling, naked short selling, purchases and sales of Company stock, obtaining paper certificates, and stock loan or borrow of Company shares. The Company intends to review the subpoena and respond in due course...

full press release: http://www.shareholder.com/overstock/Rel...eID=195813

[thentavius]

In all honesty, is he a little nuts? or is he completely right?