Speaking of Deep Capture: This has to be some of the worst business reporting/headline I have ever seen:
If you want to know what the firm’s actual P&L is like, I suggest you read people who can perform basic addition and subtraction.
Try these instead:
Associated Press and Salt Lake Tribune = Fail.
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
"Money is power, & you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it." —Russell H. Conwell, Temple Univ, 1877
"It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine" say the French as consumer confidence in May rose to the highest since Nov '10 as they welcome and get excited about new Pres Hollande. Also, the French 10 yr bond yield touched the lowest on record this morning. June consumer confidence in Germany held at 5.7, just .2 pts off the highest since Mar '11. To the euro bond debate which is now taking on greater rhetoric with those with high bond yields wanting them and those with low ones saying no way, ECB member...
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April 6th, 2010 at 9:41 am
oh no you DI’INT! Patrick Byrne is gonna get-ya….
(//sarcasm)
April 6th, 2010 at 9:54 am
He’s a big fan of yours. according to the garbage on DC everything is A) the shorts fault B) your fault (you are obviously scared of him according to some tape where you refused to talk to him).
Funny how the shorts go after firms who can’t/won’t perform, but leaders like AAPL somehow aren’t ruined by them…
Hey Patrick, try this: generate big profits, big sales, low debt, loads of free cash flow, have a mng’t team that the st trusts, etc and you’ll be surprised how those evil shorts get squeezed away.
April 6th, 2010 at 9:59 am
I refused to talk to the former Overstock PR hack/social networking pretexter/all around douche bag Judd Bagley.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss/debate issues of accounting fraud and naked short selling with Patrick Byrne.
What I refused to do was chat with his bitch . . .
April 6th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Looks like a good day to short Overstock.
EVERYBODY IN THE POOL!!!
April 6th, 2010 at 10:43 am
Gee, they can’t get even that simple fact correct — it was bagley , not byrne?
Those deep capture people seem to be captured by a reality of their own making
April 6th, 2010 at 11:06 am
How is this junk about to hit a new 52-week high?? Man the street is on crack. Easiest short play around here.
I wonder if there has ever been a case of a CEO bashing shorts so much and he actually ran a good company. Every other CEO short basher we have heard of has been a toilet company.
April 6th, 2010 at 11:26 am
I don’t know, cash flow was was $43m for the year vs. $3.6m in the prior year – so even leaving aside any shenanigans on the income statement, performance is not bad. And, having been through bringing a new auditor on to a public company recently, I do place a fair amount of confidence on current numbers no matter how aggressive management is.
Cash flow was impacted by $18m positive in accounts payable, but overall net working capital was also up by about $10m, so however you cut it, and however nutty Byrne is the, the business itself seems to have had good performance.
April 6th, 2010 at 11:27 am
So Barry, you admit that you were afraid!!! Those @ DC always knew this to be true!
;-)
I don’t know if it came across, but my first post was meant to be sarcastic.
April 6th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
If I had my life to live over again I’d want to be a Brash CEO. The glamor! The hookers! The blow! Totally Larger than Life. Short sellers quaking before the throne. Down on the corner, out in the street, we can only marvel.
April 6th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
So OSTK fraudulently overstated earnings of -$7mm as +$7mm? Who cares.
Sure, gain on bonds is a one-off, and unwinding a sales return provision is the proverbial accounting cookie jar. But the +$7mm of legal settlement may be an appropriate net against other legal G&A expenses. Back some, all, or none of those out and OSTK netted $0, -7, +7…
Why so much vitriol against Byrne and his mgmt team? Over zero dollars?? For a $350mm EV company??? I don’t get it.
Separately, naked shorting does seem to be a problem worth some attention.
April 6th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
GB,
I love this! Byrne seems to be nuttier than the day is long. He also openly lies, fabricates stories, etc…
BUT… Doesn’t that sound like pretty much EVERY CEO you’ve ever encountered? Is there a single CEO where someone can point out that they do what they say, or haven’t made boldfaced lies in front of others and in print? (besides Buffett?) Seems that most CEOs are megalomaniacs who have an overstated sense of self. Byrne just seems to be constantly sticking his foot in his mouth, and the more he does it, the more people point it out. Nowadays, it’s not even sport anymore, it’s like kicking the crippled kid in school. Yes, we get it, Byrne lies, lies, lies. So does our president and pretty much every former president and every head of state everywhere! Aren’t those gaffes worth more attention? What do I know?
But I also believe that there is significant evidence that naked short selling exists, especially on the fringe.
April 6th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
GB, Hmmmmmmmmm
User name I don’t remember seeing before, finishing with a “naked short” comment on a Overstock post.
How about a great big Douche to you.
April 6th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Doesn’t there come a point when Accounting fraud becomes more difficult than adopting a Business model that actually makes money?