In Friday's missive, Byrne said he had sold an additional 400,000 shares. In all, Byrne recently sold 900,000"founders shares," amounting to more than 15% of his stake in the company. Overstock's shares rebounded 3% on Friday.
Byrne for over a decade has publicly battled short sellers targeting his company as it competes against larger rivals, including Amazon.com and eBay. "Not once have I ever asked a shareholder for his reasons in any decision he made. Yet, given the consternation this has caused, I will give answer, to preclude further recurrence of mass vapors."
Total short bets against Overstock currently stand at $157 million, equivalent to over 50% of its float, according to S3 Partners, a financial analytics firm. The retailer is more targeted by short sellers than 99% of U.S. companies, according to Refinitiv.
Marc Cohodes, quoted in this article, is a pal of Patrick Byrne since he decided that the man was God's gift to CEOs and not a serial liar, as he once branded him. He has tweeted 3X that Byrne sold INVOLUNTARILY as a result of a margin call. That directly contradicts the release.
Interesting that I got an Overstock credit card offering in the mail yesterday 🤔
100k a year. He is the CEO. 😬
I wonder if he or his buddies, will later purchase stocks at the reduced price?