San Diego Union-Tribune – It didn’t take long once Utah’s Overstock.com became a publicly traded company for Patrick M. Byrne to show he is no ordinary company president.<\/p>\n
He quoted Chairman Mao in a letter to shareholders. He said investors should think of \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201ccash and inventory as a physicist thinks of mass and energy: one is a form of the other.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d He compared growing Overstock.com’s business as an online retailer of closeout merchandise to \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cbuilding the Ark.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n
But the voluble Byrne’s chatty discourse took an ominous turn in early 2004.<\/p>\n
Taking offense at a couple of negative business stories about Overstock.com, Byrne responded in corporate statements that scolded hedge funds for spreading lies about the company.<\/p>\n
\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cThis is the second time in as many months we have seen a hedge fund ‘tip off’ a reporter,\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d he said. \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cI urge reporters to question the intentions of their sources.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n
Since then, the 43-year-old Byrne has mounted a self-described \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cjihad\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d against a loosely organized confederacy of short-sellers and their allies. Byrne says it is a war between Main Street and Wall Street \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 between publicly traded companies and traders who bet against them.<\/p>\n