Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) reported impressive numbers yesterday -- and by impressive numbers, I mean another loss years after projections of profitability -- and its shares shot up more than 30%.
Gary Weiss reported on the less optimistic part of the press release that the company issued, but I'd like to take a second to point out something to investors. Even if the company's fundamentals are improving, this is still one of the creepiest public companies on the planet and it's wasting shareholder money on its creepy stalking campaigns.
If you go to DeepCapture.com -- CEO Patrick Byrne's website for trashing critics including Gary Weiss, Jim Cramer, Eliot Spitzer, and a couple of message board posters you've probably never heard of -- in the upper right hand corner of the site, you'll see a little ad: "Click here to shop Overstock.com. 5% of your purchase will go to support this effort." That link brings you to http://www.overstock.com/?TID=deepcapture where, presumably, any order you make will be tagged by the company to funnel 5% of the sale to the "effort."
What exactly is the money being used for? Former white-collar criminal and Overstock-critic Sam E. Antar received an email from former journalist Mark Mitchell: "I am writing a story about short-selllers (sic) and their relationships with independent researchers and the media. I would like to give you the opportunity to respond to various allegations regarding your work." He goes on to say that the article will be published on DeepCapture.com.
So here's the question I have: Why is Overstock.com's board of directors allowing Patrick Byrne to funnel money from the company's sales to a pet project aimed at pseudo-investigative pieces on short-sellers and their relationships with independent researches and the media?
If Patrick Byrne wants to use his own money to wage his self-proclaimed jihad, that's his business. But he should leave corporate assets out of it.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-20-2008 @ 6:20AM
al coholic said...
Byrne is definitely a nut of some kind.
But sometimes I worry about Weiss too. He made his point about Overstock long ago but devotes virtually all his time and energy to telling the same story over and over again day in and day out. It's like watching Groundhog Day.
If all the things you say about Byrne and his company are true ( and they probably are) he will never survive.