As I’ve already mentioned, Gary Weiss did a great piece about the weekend rantings of Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne. I finally got a chance to get back over there and read the comments, this one by Jeff Matthews is hilarious. Jeff has a cool blog called Jeff Matthews Is Not Making This Up. My sentiments exactly… many times when I am writing about the clowns at Usana, Overstock, or Mary Kay, I feel like I have to tell the rational people “I’m not making this up!!!”

Jeff writes:

Great stuff, Gary.

That Byrne appears to be message-boarding under assumed names is nothing new: a virtual Byrne clone posted on my blog for months as a self-styled “student” under the handle, “Padawan Cowboy,” constantly defending/explaining himself and/or his various public ravings, such as the Israeli mafia rant on Christian Financial radio.

Google “Padawan Cowboy” and you will discover that it is yet another Star Wars character, along with the “Sith Lord.”

The idea that the CEO of a public company might find the time to not only read blogs but to write comments was amusing in a pathetic sort of way.

However, there’s nothing amusing about SEC subpoenas.
Jeff Matthews | 05.13.07 – 11:29 am | #

Wow. A CEO and his Star Wars fantasies. With quarter after quarter of losses at Overstock, one would think he might focus his attention on actually running the company? Then again, maybe that would make it even worse.

One Comment

  1. Scipio 05/14/2007 at 10:16 pm - Reply

    I read the “Padawan Cowboy” comments and I don’t think it was Byrne. The text was too free of typos and I can’t image Byrne writing that much without a single obscure opera metaphor or something similar.

    Byrne hires the grunt work out. It could have been that guy.

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