The bizarre world of Patrick Byrne's Overstock

[mandy]

The SCO Group and Senator Hatch aren't the only strange things you'll find in the beautiful state of Utah.

Take Overstock, whose CEO Patrick Byrne has held calls with financial analysts in which he delved into his sexuality and experiences with cocaine, in the midst of a tirade on how a cabal led by a "Sith Lord" was out to destroy his company.

These days things are looking pretty awful for the online retailer. It faces mounting losses. It has suffered through an IT collapse. And as we've discovered, it forces buyers to endure the most shocking customer service we've ever encountered. All the while baffling Wall Street with a riddle wrapped in an enigma of a CEO.

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/03/...ck_issues/

[sneakymagenta]

He is one scary dude!

[mandy]

Just three days after our story on the oddities of Overstock.com CEO Patrick Bryne appeared, the "Biggest O" went and earned another dubious distinction. Byrne received an honorable mention in CBS MarketWatch's survey of the worst CEOs in 2005.

"If you're wondering why Patrick 'Sith Lord' Byrne of Overstock wasn't even among the finalists, despite his egregious and outlandish behavior, his company's string of disappointing results, his extreme IT mismanagement and the appearance that he generally runs his mouth more than his business - the reason is simple: At least his company's revenues through last quarter were still rapidly growing,"

full article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/12/08/...k_letters/

That article link also contains several very funny letters to the editor of TheRegister    One letter which is not funny but revealing is this one:

More importantly, one reader picked up on a key metric that we missed.

    I find it very interesting that Overstocks rating at Yahoo Shopping is "Good" (3 out of 5) despite all the 1 star reviews?

    At www.resellerratings.com Overstock is scoring 1.25 out of 10 over the last six months and its lifetime rating has dropped to 3.34 out of 10.

[sneakymagenta]

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1634.html

Customer Satisfaction 
Six-Month Rating: 1.16  Six-Month Reviews:  69 
Lifetime Reviews:  330
Lifetime Rating: 3.30 Average Store: 7.17

5.59 Pricing of Products and Services
0.89 Likelihood of Future Purchases
1.13 Shipping and Packaging
0.50 Customer Service
0.68 Return or Replacement

6 months of problems  :blinkie:

[rossellini]

I can't figure out if Byrne is a mad genius or just mad. 

[bargainbloodhound]

Overstock's Patrick Byrne answers Business Week reporter's questions. 

Dear Tim,
I appreciate your taking the time to write such an exhaustive list of questions. Since you did nothing to indicate the interview was off-the-record I am treating it as on-the-record (that is the journalistic convention, I believe), and so have reprinted your letter below. I trust also that you do not mind me responding in this public forum, as you also failed to stipulate otherwise (as some reporters have when they interview me by email).

My normal practice is to respond in CAPS interspersed among questions posed. As some, however, some have misconstrued that to mean, "shouting," I will switch to italics to reduce any possibility of misunderstanding...

full article: http://www.thesanitycheck.com/DrByrneBus...fault.aspx

[sneakymagenta]

PUT DOWN THE CRACK PIPE! 

[bargainbloodhound]

I doubt if he made many friends on Wall Street with this comment:

For the record, I count several wrigglers and escorts among my friends, consider these women finer human beings than the average denizen of Wall Street, and would have no objection to hiring any of them. Unfortunately, they are all holding out for C-level titles

It was the first time I'd heard someone refer to a stripper as a wriggler. I'd probably agree with him that many on Wall Street are slimebuckets

The one interesting fact in the interview was :

Auctions had GMV of about $30 million in 2005

[amy]

Byrne followed up his BusinessWeek posting on TheSanityCheck web site with a similar post directed to a NewYork Post writer's questions the next day.  Overstock also issued press releases about both of Byrne's posts.  :blinkie:

..."They" should have instructed you to change the "declining liquidity" verbiage, at least. Send word back - sloppy.

By the way, Nietzsche said somewhere , "Philosophers tell us that history repeats itself. They neglect to mention that the first time it's tragedy, the second time farce."  If they're throwing you at me I'd say this is all getting a little low rent. At least Bethany left me nice voicemails and bought me a beer.

http://thesanitycheck.com/DrByrneNYPost/...fault.aspx

Overstock Press Release announcing the 1st post:

"Had I not responded to Tim's extensive questions, or had I responded privately, there is some tiny chance that he may have taken liberties with the truth. My responses also contain operational detail to which I feel all investors should be alerted. So given that Tim intended this to be an on-the-record interview, I treated it as on the record, and am publishing it myself first.

http://www.shareholder.com/overstock/Rel...eID=184313

Overstock Press Release announcing the 2nd post:
http://www.shareholder.com/overstock/Rel...eID=184354

[mandy]

A related article:

Blogs aren't just for geeks and teenagers, it seems. They can also be used by companies and even CEOs as a way of levelling the playing field between journalists and the people they write about. The latest case in point is a recent online battle between Patrick Byrne -- the notoriously eccentric CEO of Overstock.com -- and a reporter for BusinessWeek magazine named Tim Mullaney.

full article: http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/s...echnology/