sith lord

Facebook “Friends” Are Co-Conspirators In Overstock.com Land

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Conspiracy-TheoriesIn the world of Patrick Byrne, CEO of flailing Overstock.com (NYSE:OSTK), his paid stalkers, and his nutty followers, anything and everything is evidence of a massive conspiracy on Wall Street. Involved in this massive conspiracy are “captured” journalists who “take orders” from hedge funds and help manipulate the stockmarket.

Remember the days when Byrne was claiming that his company’s poor stock price was a direct result of naked short selling of the company stock? And when that allegation couldn’t be proven and consistent poor financial results (even poor after the accounting department did a little magic on them each quarter) seemed to be the real reason the company’s stock hasn’t done well…. then the real story became the massive conspiracy on Wall Street. Continue reading

Overstock.com’s Mounting Accumulated Losses

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Patrick Byrne, Sith LordToday Patrick Byrne, CEO of the ever-flailing internet retailer Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) went on Fox Business to talk about naked short selling and conspiracy theories. And to whine about CNBC and the fact that he thinks people at CNBC take orders from Hedge funds: “They won’t let me on to talk about it.”

Byrne was asked the question on everyone’s mind: Isn’t the hammering of Overstock’s stock price really related more to the fact that the company has never turned a profit, rather than the naked short selling conspiracy?

Patrick’s response? Overstock has “….made money in some quarters.” Continue reading

The History of Patrick Byrne’s Sith Lord

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If you like to read about delusional rantings and paranoid conspiracy theories, you can’t help but follow full-time message board poster Patrick Byrne. He moonlights as the CEO of failing online retailer Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), but his real purpose in life is uncovering conspiracies.

The funny thing is that if Byrne was a little more lucid, someone might listen to him. Is there corruption on Wall Street? Of course. Is it the grand conspiracy by which financial reporters take their orders from hedge fund managers and write whatever will make the hedgies billions of dollars? I doubt it. But that’s Byrne’s theory. Continue reading

Short Selling, Miscreants Ball, and Conspiracies… OH MY!

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On August 12, 2005, Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) had a conference call he said was going to give information about the “August 11 lawsuit.”

The transcript is 17 glorious pages of Byrne rambling about his conspiracy theories. No questions. Just Byrne and conspiracy theories. I read it on Thursday. And I didn’t really know what to do with it. Do I try to summarize all the nonsense? Then what?

Fortunately, a poster on a stock message board has saved me the trouble. Here’s what he calls the Reader’s Digest version of the transcript. If you’re normal, you will get less than 1/4 through it and swear that this person is lying. The transcript of this public conference call sponsored by Overstock.com couldn’t possibly have happened this way. Oh yes, it could. Read the transcript for yourself! Continue reading

A Little “Deep Capture” Cover-Up in the Works?

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Gary Weiss has a most excellent post on his blog about an apparent cover-up in progress by Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK).

Here’s the deal: For a couple of years now, Patrick has been ranting and raving about conspiracies and Sith Lords and secret fax machines and other oddities related to Naked Short Selling. (Just type “sith lord” into the search box to the right to get a flavor of what I mean.) He is going to be the savior of the investing world, and DeepCapture.com is his “journalistic” endeavor related to this. Continue reading

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com Is a Crook, According to Himself

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According to a transcript of an interview that Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) CEO Patrick Byrne did with CNBC in 2004, he is a crook. Here’s the relevant portion:

Interview: Patrick Byrne, chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, discusses the company’s revenues and earnings

23 April 2004
CNBC: Kudlow & Cramer

Mr. BYRNE: Well, first of all, I’m all about gap [sic]. I have been so critical of the companies that do–I don’t believe in one-time charges; I don’t believe in EBITDA. If somebody talks EBITDA, put your hand on your wallet; they’re a crook.

Well, Patrick has been doing an awful lot of talking about EBITDA. And not only is he talking about it, he’s presenting blatantly false and overstated numbers when talking about it.

I agree with Patrick: He is a crook.

Video of Patrick Byrne discussing the Sith Lord’s fax machine at CNBC

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I couldn’t make up stuff this good if I tried. Seriously. The things that Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) says are a journalist’s dream. (Yes, if Byrne can think of himself as a journalist, so can I!) I reported the other day on his comments about the secret fax machine at CNBC. Here’s the video of the clown actually saying it. Skip ahead to 5:00 to get to the good stuff.

And when Liz Claman says she’s never seen such a fax machine, Byrne says “I have a good source on that.” I bet you do, Wacky Patty.

GAAP Being Replaced By BOSS

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It’s official. The Sith Lord and I have concluded our meeting, and public companies in the United States will no longer be required to follow GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Instead, they will immediately begin following BOSS (Because Overstock Said So).

Many of you are not surprised by this change. With Patrick Byrne’s impressive ability to manipulate the accounting rules for the benefit of his company, Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), it only makes sense that we reward him by allowing him to make the accounting rules going forward. (He makes his own rules anyway, so what’s the difference?) Continue reading

Patrick Byrne’s delusions

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More delusional talk from Patrick Byrne, CEO of POS Overstock.com. From Herb Greenberg at Marketwatch:

Speaking on the Fox Business Channel today to my friend Liz Claman, [Byrne] 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 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!

Why, oh why does Herb have to leave journalism? And why don’t I get those special faxes from the Sith Lord???