Judd Bagley, Director of Communications at Overstock.com is at it again. Judd’s apparent main duty as Director of Communications is to stalk people who question Overstock.com management and financial statements. He threatens and intimidates those who dare to voice their opinion or publish facts about the company and its executives. He is quite apparently doing all of this on behalf of Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com.
His latest target is Zac Bissonnette, an excellent blogger at AOL’s BloggingStocks and independent blog Hedge Funnies. Zac just so happens to be a teenager (age 19) but is mature beyond his years.
Judd is taking him to task for writing about Overstock. The more insanity Zac exposes, the harder Judd will likely come after him. (This isn’t the first blogger he’s stalked in this fashion.)
On Friday morning, Judd used his Yahoo alias of “Edward Bankey” to post the first threat – saying that Zac would be the subject of a post on AntiSocialMedia (Overstock’s smear website).
Zac and his blogging partner immediately fought back with a blog etnry: Overstock.com’s other resident creep comes after Hedge Funnies:
Well loyal readers (and by that I mean mom and dad), it’s happened far more quickly than we ever could have ever hoped, but Hedge Funnies has made an enemy in the corporate world, that is if you include OSTK as part of the corporate world – most members of the corporate world are more focused on making money than doing internet exposes on 19-year olds…
Sam Antar felt compelled to notify Overstock.com board of directors members of this stalking activity by Bagley.
More threats from Bagley ensued, posted on Wikipedia on the article for Zac’s high school. (Yes, I said his high school… this is how far Bagley is stooping.) He threatened to give Zac the “Gary Weiss treatment,” which many of us know includes physical threats, anti-Semitic slurs, internet smear campaigns, and general intimidation.
Zac gives his thoughts on Bagley’s intimidation:
Judd, I’m sorry I made fun of the toilet-bowl you work for — OVERSTOCK.COM. But relax it was just a joke. Trust me, there are plenty of people trashing your company with rational substantive arguments. So many in fact, that I haven’t even bothered. We picked you as a target for Hedgefunnies.com because we knew you would come after us. You did, and we have had very nice traffic in our first few days. Thanks Judd! The rational arguments I haven’t really wasted my time with: Exhibit A: OSTK has an accumulated deficit of over 220 MILLION dollars, and continues to lose money amid declining sales. No need to go and be a creepy cyber-stalker. But please do come after me. Wall Street will CRACK UP when they find out you are going after a 19-year old blogger. And please don’t come visit me in the fall at Umass Amherst. Please keep your creepiness limited to the internet.
Judd Bagley thinks he is going to expose some vast conspiracy between Sam Antar and several others. I think Patrick Byrne’s “Sith Lord’ delusions are rubbing off on him and he may need to seek medical assistance.
And no, Zac isn’t afraid of Judd Bagley.
