Overstock CEO Spars With BusinessWeek Reporter (OSTK)

Daily Dose of Optimism submits: Overstock (OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne gets into it with a BusinessWeek reporter via email, hosted on the website of "Bob O'Brien".

I don't follow OSTK closely, though as a regular reader of Jeff Matthews, I am kept abreast of the general details. It is generally acknowledged that when management fights short-sellers, something isn't right. Still, it's unusual that multiple media sources are so far ahead of a relatively small story like this one. Perhaps the added attention afforded this episode by blogs is evidence of how web micro-communications are amplifying stories in the mainstream.

Here's Byrne's convoluted take on how he doesn't think about meeting Street estimates:

Regrettably, much of the rest of your question concerns either quarterly "misses," which is odd, because my announced goals are always annual, or make the mistake of discussing "misses" in the context of numbers from Wall Street analysts which I have not only specifically disclaimed, I rarely if ever even read. (Look at it this way: suppose Joe announces, "Tim will score 20 points in a game of basketball this afternoon," and you disclaim that, but go out and score 18 points, or even choose to play hockey this afternoon, have you "missed" your numbers? Why are they even "your" numbers? Aren't they "Joe's" numbers? In short, are "your" numbers the numbers that you announce as your own, or are they what get assigned to you by people who don't have any idea what you plan on doing this afternoon?)

More on this from Henry Blodget and The Globe & Mail. And don't miss Byrne's latest statement that he recently planned to leave Overstock for a 'much more interesting job' that didn't materialize.

OSTK 1-yr chart: