Today 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.”
Naturally, I had to check this out for myself. And in fact, teeny tiny profits were reported by Overstock.com in the quarters ended December 31, 2002 and December 31, 2004. That of course, assumes that you believe the company reports its financials accurately. But yes, two does equal “some,” so Patrick is correct.
But what was really amusing to me is all the red ink. The company hasn’t even come close to turning a profit in any year. And I took it upon myself to add up the company’s losses from 2000 through June 30, 2008, and the result is hilarious. Almost $239 million in accumulated losses over that period, with over $125 million of the losses just in the last 8 quarters. Gosh, Patrick is really doing a fantastic job, isn’t he?
In Overstock.com’s only two profitable quarters ever (Q4 2002 and Q4 2004), the company’s reported profits were overstated due to its intentional revenue accounting error uncovered by the SEC Division of Corporation Finance in 2008.
Yeah, I did have to add the “if you believe their numbers” disclaimer because we know how fond Patrick is of misstating the financial results.
You can tack on another $30 million of unrealized capital losses from Skippy’s misguided share buy-backs.
[…] Since 2000, Overstock.com has never had a profitable year. The only two quarters which ended up in the black are suspect… And since 2000, the company has accumulated losses over $239 million. […]
[…] Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) and its “colorful” CEO Patrick Byrne have a history of something…. At worst, it’s a history of misleading investors with false information, incomplete and inaccurate disclosures, and phony accounting measures. At best, it’s a history of gross incompentence that will never be overcome. […]
[…] But never fear! Byrne says his employees are a bunch of Boy Scouts, so we should pay no attention to their accounting fiasco. This is a kind of a “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” defense. The company has never been able to produce accurate financial statements, their accounting treatment of many items has been questionable at best (and outright fraud at the worst), and Byrne is too busy chasing around an imaginary Sith Lord to actually run his company. […]
[…] years perfecting their methods of stalking and intimidating anyone who dares to criticize their perpetual losses, their wackadoo CEO Patrick Byrne, the gross incompetence of management, and (most importantly) […]