Overstock.com: We need even more time to file last year’s 10k
Perennial quarterly statement fabricator Overstock.com filed a FORM 12b-25: NOTIFICATION OF LATE FILING for its 2009 10K. (Delisting soon to follow?)
Why is Overstock.com filing this this delay of its 401k at this late date? “Operational errors“are the starter, but the real issue is “material weaknesses in its internal control over financial reporting.” At least, that’s what Stephen J. Chesnut, their Senior Vice President, Finance and Risk Management.
Someone less eloquent than Mr.Chestnut would have called their accounting a steaming pile of fresh bullshit.
Me? I call the whole organization “reality challenged.” I deduce this due to their difficulties finding, retaining and then keeping auditors. Oh, and the massive campaign of misdirection, misinformation, pretexting and otherwise contemptible actions by a public firm.
My expectation is that we will eventually discover numerous other unsavory secrets at this little shop of creative accounting horrors.
I harbor no animus — I only wish that everyone involved in this firm gets what they deserve. No more, no less . . .
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See also:
Overstock.com Fails to Celebrate Latest Fiasco
http://garyweiss.blogspot.com/2010/03/overstockcom-fails-to-celebrate-latest.html
Overstock Delays Filing 10-K; Finds Multiple Accounting Errors
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2010/03/17/overstock-finds-multiple-accounting-errors-delays-filing-10-k/
Overstock.com Delays Filing 10-K, Reports Even More GAAP Violations, While Patrick Byrne Hides
http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2010/03/overstockcom-delays-filing-10-k-reports.html
Overstock.com, Inc. Draws Skeptical Speculation, Despite Short-Term Rally (Shaeffers Research)
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March 16th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
Barry, no you got it wrong, it’s all because of the evil short sellers ;-)
March 16th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
Considering the precedent set by Fannie Mae, my guesstimate is the SEC will give ‘em another couple years to file it…
March 16th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
We have audited the accompanying balance sheet of Overstock, Inc. (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2008, 9 and 10 even and the related statements of income, retained earnings, and cash flows for the year then ended. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2010, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States.
Signed,
David G. Friehling C.P.A
March 16th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
“as of December 31, 2010″ huh?
That’s some thorough accounting — including the future !
March 16th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Eventually, the weasels and douchebags get theirs.
My prediction is senior management get banned from ever running a public company . . . .
March 16th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Barry,
I think you do yourself an injustice in saying you “harbor no animous”. You clearly should, given that their rat bastard CEO outed your friends and family. Tell it like it is…and let em suffer their fate with the assistance of your fourth estate influence.
Would that everyone harbored animous these days, all this BS may finally come to an end. Playing nice just drags it all out
March 16th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Another chapter to add to The Art of Short Selling.
March 16th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Who wants to bet me they are delisted or trading under $1 within 2 years?
(And I have no position in the stock)
March 16th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Day’s Range: 14.17 – 15.22
52wk Range: 8.88 – 17.99
Volume: 150,101
Avg Vol (3m): 133,518
Market Cap: 341.85M
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=OSTK&
After Hours: 14.44 0.53 (3.54%) 5:00pm ET
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=OSTK
March 16th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
LOL. C’mon, really what do they deserve?
March 16th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
I’d be wagering that BR was intending:
animus [ˈænɪməs]
n
1. intense dislike; hatred; animosity
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/animus
w/that, seems like a(nother) Good Trade..
sometimes, one has to consider the Source (r@t b@st@rd), and leave it to a higher Authority..
could give insight into the old adage: “the Market will out..”
March 17th, 2010 at 5:15 am
What is FFH and AXA Financial doing with so much OSTK stock ? The more info the public learns about this company just leads to more questions. I mean why did FFH recently delist its stock here in the USA ?
March 17th, 2010 at 6:59 am
Venndata –
David G. Friehling C.P.A is the accountant charged in the Madoff scheme, right?
There is never just one cockroach.
March 17th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Barry–
Note a much more systemically significant delayed filing, that of ABK’s 10K.
March 17th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Everyone just follows the lead of Congress.
They pass bills they neither wrote nor read.
The CPAs sign off on financials and give opinions in the same manner.
State pension funds assume an 8% rate of return.
America slipped into fantasyland some time ago!
March 17th, 2010 at 11:52 am
To clarify certain comments above in re Overstock.com’s auditors, David Friehling has not served as the company’s auditor, at least not in recent years.
In 2007 and 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers were the auditors. They raised serious concerns about OSTK’s weak internal controls. In a March 2009 8-K filing with SEC, OSTK stated …
“In 2008 the Company and Audit Committee discussed with PwC the existence of a material weakness in the Company’s internal control over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures, as more fully described in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K/A for the year ended December 31, 2007, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A for the three months ended March 31, 2008, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q/A for the three months ended June 30, 2008 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the three months ended September 30, 2008, each filed November 10, 2008 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). Management of the Company concluded that the material weakness was remediated as of December 31, 2008.”
The purpose of that 8-K filing was to report the firing of PwC and the hiring of Grant Thorton as OSTK’s new auditors.
In a November 2009 8-K filing, the company reported that they fired Grant Thornton, once again over a disagreement.
Since the PwC concerns were first raised in 2007, and since OSTK stated a year ago that the material weaknesses were remediated as of 12/31/08, one can reasonably wonder why OSTK management has been unable to straighten things out; it’s been over two years now.
March 17th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Apparently Patrick’s not alone; there seems to be some kind of ‘Filing Flu’ going around.
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/17/2010 15:43 -0500
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jim-cramers-thestreet-being-investigated-sec
“Seek and ye shall find. Never has this been more true than combing through theStreet’s (extremely spares) financials. As investors may have been digging through the company’s SEC reports to find out just what the financial website’s unadjusted EBITDA is (hint: much, much less than its “adjusted” cousin), one stumbles upon this gem just filed in today’s Form 12B-25:
” As a result of the need for the Company and its independent registered public accounting firm to focus attention on matters related to the Company’s previously-announced review of the accounting in its former Promotions.com subsidiary, which subsidiary the Company sold in December 2009 — including matters related to the preparation and filing by the Company in February 2010 of a Form 10-K/A for the year ended December 31, 2008, a Form 10-Q/A for the quarter ended March 31, 2009 and Forms 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2009 and September 30, 2009, respectively, and matters related to an investigation commenced by Securities and Exchange Commission in March 2010 — the Company requires additional time to prepare its financial statements, assess its internal controls and file its Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.”
March 17th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Overstock Delays Filing 10-K; Finds Multiple Accounting Errors
Overstock.com (OSTK) earlier this week disclosed that it will have to delay filing its 2009 10-K, due to the ongoing restatement of financial results for 2008 and for the March, June and September quarters of 2009. The need to restate previous results was first disclosed in January.
The filing details a myriad of accounting issues that needs fixing:
The company’s latest accounting issues were highlighted today in a blog post by Sam Antar, the former Crazy Eddie CFO turned accounting crusader. Antar, who plead guilty to three felonies related to the fraud at Crazy Eddie, writes in the post that he is neither long nor short OSTK, and that his ongoing research on OSTK is “a freebie for securities regulators and the public in order to help me get into heaven,” but adds “I doubt that I will ever get there anyway. I will probably end up joining corporate miscreants such as [Overstock CEO] Patrick Byrne in hell.”
March 17th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Ah Yes, Here’s the Other Problem with Overstock.com!
March 17th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
Overstock.com Delays Filing 10-K, Reports Even More GAAP Violations, While Patrick Byrne Hides
Yesterday, Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) filed a Notification of Late Filing (Form 12b-25) for its 2009 annual 10-K report at around 4:23 PM (Eastern) or about 37 minutes before the drop-dead deadline when the 10-K report was due to be filed.
The Notification of Late Filing identifies new previously undisclosed material violations of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and other Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules. The company needs more time to determine the accounting impact of certain material GAAP violations first acknowledged by the company on January 29 and new GAAP violations reported by the company in its “Notification of Late Filing.”
Apparently, KPMG who was hired as Overstock.com’s new auditors after they fired Grant Thornton, has finally learned what I’ve known for a very long time: The deeper you dig into Overstock.com’s financial reporting, the more black holes (GAAP and SEC disclosure violations) you will find.