Overstock.com: Patrick Byrne's Tenuous Grasp of Reality

I’m beginning to wonder if it’s time to start feeling sorry for Patrick Byrne, the Overstock (OSTK) CEO whose comments at times, such as Tuesday's, appear to be detached from any sense of reality.

Speaking on the Fox Business Channel to my friend Liz Claman, he said:

I think that there’s been an unhealthy collusion developed between certain short sellers and certain journalists. They center around your competitor, CNBC. I happen to know for a fact that there’s a fax machine in the CNBC offices where every morning hedge machines, I mean hedge funds send instructions and journalists sit around and take instructions.

Liz quickly responded:

Well I worked in CNBC and I never saw that fax machine.

Of course she didn’t, because there is no such fax machine!

Byrne, you may recall, made similar allegations against Gradient Analytics, which recently filed a counter-suit to Overstock, alleging libel.

What’s next, black helicopters?

The beat goes on….

Comments

[Gaucho:]

Yea well we will see when the discovery comes out. It is amazing that the media and you included keep saying he is paranoid but the employees of Hedge fund Rocker that is in court are saying the opposite.
I have watched as a constellation of financial media all bash heavily shorted companies at the same time. I have seen manipulation of trading and naked shorting happening on companies in the market. Isn’t it amazing the CALM has 90% of its float shorted and a P/E ratio of 3.5 and huge growth. Yet the news is non-existent on huge run ups and always negative slanted.
Who am I going to believe you or my lying eyes?
[Edited for abusive content]

2008 Apr 24 09:15 AM

[Sanjeev Parsad:]

Hi Herb,

I've asked Sam Antar, Gary Weiss and Tracey Coenen on their blogs a simple question, and none of them are willing to answer. While I've often disagreed with you, generally you are willing to respond to questions. Perhaps, in this circumstance, you may even be willing to assist me and ask them the question as well. Here it is:

Do Sam, Gary or Tracey believe that Patrick Byrne or any executive at Overstock.com, is manipulating the company's financial statements?

This really should be a no-brainer for Tracey, as she is a forensic accountant, but she just won't give me a "yes or no" answer. Funny how she had this quote from her latest blog:

"If everything is on the up-and-up, I don’t understand why Overstock.com doesn’t just report the numbers. Offer up the information in the interest of transparency. Quit doing things that make it look like you’re trying to manipulate the financial statements again and again."

Best of luck! If you do get an answer, I'll send you a fruit basket that I'll order from Overstock.com!

2008 Apr 28 01:05 PM

[fxtrader07:]

Herb, you are surely one of the most blatant story-cookers out there.
"feeling sorry" for Byrne? No need, Herb. His conscience, I am 100% sure, is pure and clear. In this regard, you may start feel sorry for yourself. If there is any self respect and conscience left with you at all, that is.

2008 May 13 03:51 AM