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''Main Article:'' ''[http://www2.pmc.org/articles.asp?ArticleID=110| Patrick Byrne's Heavy Hitter Banquet Speech].'' |
''Main Article:'' ''[http://www2.pmc.org/articles.asp?ArticleID=110 | Patrick Byrne's Heavy Hitter Banquet Speech].'' |
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After graduating from Darmouth in 1985, Byrne collapsed during summer vacaction in Scotland. Returning home for medical examination, exploratory kidney surgery revealed cancer metastasizing through out his body, filling his vena cava and lungs with tumor, and causing over 20 pulmonary embolisms. After seven months in the hospital, pulmonary embolectomies, open chest surgeries, and Bleomycin chemotherapy, Byrne's cancer went into remission and he was discharged at the end of January 1986. Byrne then bicycled across America with his brother for recovery. In December 1986, an X-ray showed cancer returning to his lungs, and subsequent Bleomycin therapy put cancer into remission. Tests one month later revealed cancer returning for the third time and metastasizing in the bones. Byrne was put on salvage therapy where he elected to take part in a trial for experimental testicular cancer treatments. After large doses of Ifosfamide, biopsies from two removed ribs showed no signs of live cancer. For physical and mental recovery Byrne bicycled across America two more times. Initially private about his three years of struggle with cancer, PMC founder [[Billy Starr]] compelled Byrne to share his story at the 2000 [[Pan-Massachusetts_Challenge]] Heavy Hitter Banquet.<ref name="Cancer1">{{cite web |
After graduating from Darmouth in 1985, Byrne collapsed during summer vacaction in Scotland. Returning home for medical examination, exploratory kidney surgery revealed cancer metastasizing through out his body, filling his vena cava and lungs with tumor, and causing over 20 pulmonary embolisms. After seven months in the hospital, pulmonary embolectomies, open chest surgeries, and Bleomycin chemotherapy, Byrne's cancer went into remission and he was discharged at the end of January 1986. Byrne then bicycled across America with his brother for recovery. In December 1986, an X-ray showed cancer returning to his lungs, and subsequent Bleomycin therapy put cancer into remission. Tests one month later revealed cancer returning for the third time and metastasizing in the bones. Byrne was put on salvage therapy where he elected to take part in a trial for experimental testicular cancer treatments. After large doses of Ifosfamide, biopsies from two removed ribs showed no signs of live cancer. For physical and mental recovery Byrne bicycled across America two more times. Initially private about his three years of struggle with cancer, PMC founder [[Billy Starr]] compelled Byrne to share his story at the 2000 [[Pan-Massachusetts_Challenge]] Heavy Hitter Banquet.<ref name="Cancer1">{{cite web |
Revision as of 14:09, 12 January 2013
Patrick M. Byrne | |
---|---|
Born | Patrick Michael Byrne 1962 (age 62–63) Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Dartmouth College, B.A. Philosophy, Asian Studies Cambridge University, M.A. Mathematical Logic Stanford University, Ph.D Philosophy |
Occupation(s) | CEO and Chairman, Overstock.com Chairman, Friedman Foundation Investigative Journalist, Deepcapture.com |
Awards | Entreprenuer of the Year |
Website | http://www.deepcapture.com |
Patrick M. Byrne (born 1962, Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States) is an American entrepreneur, e-commerce pioneer, CEO and Chairman of Overstock.com, creator of Worldstock Fair Trade, value investor, Warren Buffett protégé, world traveler, martial artist, boxer, Marshall Scholar, philosophy doctorate, polyglot, author, investigative journalist, writer, pilot, philanthropist, successor to Milton Friedman as Chairman of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, and leading figure in the campaign against corruption in American capital markets known for Dutch auction IPO, Miscreants Ball, Overstock.com v Gradient Analytics, suing twelve Wall Street prime brokerages including Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, the Market Reform Movement and Deepcapture.com. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43][44][45] [46] [47] [48]
In 1999, Byrne took control of the company, then called D2: Discounts Direct, and changed its name to Overstock. He had previously served shorter terms leading two smaller companies, including one owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. [49]
In 2002, Byrne took Overstock.com public. Since the initial public offering, the company has since increased its revenue to over $1 billion a year, and achieved full profitability in 2009.[50]
In 2002, Byrne was named to BusinessWeek’s list of the 25 most influential people in e-Business.[51] and Ernst & Young awarded Byrne the "2002 Milestone Award Winner Utah Region.".[49][52] In 2010 Overstock.com was named the best retailer to work for in America by Forbes, noting that Byrne's 92% employee approval rating is the highest of any CEO in the nation.[53]
Beginning in 2005, Byrne become known for his campaign against the practice of naked short selling. Byrne says it has been used in violation of securities law to hurt the price of his and other companies' stock.[54] Under his direction, Overstock.com has filed two lawsuits alleging improper acts by Wall Street firms, a hedge fund, and an independent research firm.[55]
Background
Patrick Byrne is the son of John J. Byrne, former chairman of Berkshire Hathaway's GEICO insurance subsidiary and White Mountains Insurance Group.[56] He holds a certificate from Beijing Normal University, has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese studies from Dartmouth College, a Master's degree from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University.[57]
Byrne was a teaching fellow at Stanford University from 1989 to 1991 and was manager of Blackhawk Investment Co. and Elissar, Inc. He served as Chairman, President and CEO of Centricut, LLC, a manufacturer of industrial torches, then held the same three positions at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company manufacturing police, firefighter, and military uniforms.[56][58]
Byrne has a black belt in tae kwon do, and once pursued a career in professional boxing. He is a cancer survivor, and has ridden a bicycle across the country to raise awareness and money for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Byrne has also supported implementing school vouchers and other educational reforms.[59] Byrne was the largest donor to political causes in Utah in the period 2003-2006, while his father was the third-largest.[60]
Cancer
Main Article: | Patrick Byrne's Heavy Hitter Banquet Speech.
After graduating from Darmouth in 1985, Byrne collapsed during summer vacaction in Scotland. Returning home for medical examination, exploratory kidney surgery revealed cancer metastasizing through out his body, filling his vena cava and lungs with tumor, and causing over 20 pulmonary embolisms. After seven months in the hospital, pulmonary embolectomies, open chest surgeries, and Bleomycin chemotherapy, Byrne's cancer went into remission and he was discharged at the end of January 1986. Byrne then bicycled across America with his brother for recovery. In December 1986, an X-ray showed cancer returning to his lungs, and subsequent Bleomycin therapy put cancer into remission. Tests one month later revealed cancer returning for the third time and metastasizing in the bones. Byrne was put on salvage therapy where he elected to take part in a trial for experimental testicular cancer treatments. After large doses of Ifosfamide, biopsies from two removed ribs showed no signs of live cancer. For physical and mental recovery Byrne bicycled across America two more times. Initially private about his three years of struggle with cancer, PMC founder Billy Starr compelled Byrne to share his story at the 2000 Pan-Massachusetts_Challenge Heavy Hitter Banquet.[61][62][63][64][65]
Overstock.com
In 1999, Byrne was approached by the founder of D2-Discounts Direct, asking for capital. The company had generated slightly more than $500,000 in revenue the previous year by liquidating excess inventory online. Byrne found the idea of online closeouts intriguing, and invested $7 million for a 60 percent equity stake in the company in the spring of 1999. In September the same year he took over as CEO, and the following month the company was renamed Overstock.com.[66][67]
Worldstock
During a vacation in Southeast Asia Byrne found that many village artisans were held back by the lack of retail channels, as their production was fragmented and the quantities produced were small. He decided that the Overstock model was perfectly suited for their needs. In 2001 he therefore set up the Worldstock division of Overstock.[68][69] Worldstock searches through villages all over the world for people capable of producing quality products, by 2006 there were approximately 6,000 producers contributing. On average, about 70 percent of the retail price on all Worldstock items sold goes directly to the artist.[59][70][71]
"Dutch Auction" IPO
Byrne initiated a Dutch auction IPO of Overstock.com in 2002. The company was one of the first to go public under a system advanced by WR Hambrecht + Co to retain a greater share of capital within the company rather than going to the investment bank underwriters used in conventional public offerings. Byrne has said that competing banks reacted against this, attempting to obstruct the success of the offering through negative reports and by shorting the company's stock.[72] When Google later in 2004 went public via a Dutch auction IPO, Byrne commented that Wall Street firms similarly pushed negative stories, but did not keep it from going forward successfully.[73] Four years after the OpenIPO, one official of Hambrecht, its now former co-CEO Clay Corbus was added to Overstock's board of directors.[74]
Campaign against naked shorting and analysts
In a conference call with analysts in August 2005, Byrne said that "there's been a plan since we were in our teens to destroy our stock, drive it down to $6--$10 ... and even a plan for how the company would then get whacked up." He said that the conspirators were part of a "Miscreants Ball," headed by a "Sith Lord," who he refused to identify but said "he's one of the master criminals from the 1980s." Byrne said the conspiracy included hedge funds, journalists, investigators, trial lawyers, the SEC, and Eliot Spitzer. Fortune writer Bethany McLean said that Byrne had become a "hero to those who believe that short-sellers are the operators of Wall Street's ultimate black box, predators who destroy companies through innuendo, bullying, political connections--and sometimes through an illegal practice known as 'naked shorting.'" Byrne financed and largely wrote a full-page advertisement in the Washington Post which said "Naked short-selling ... is literally stealing money from the widows, retirees, and other small investors."[75] In a letter to the Wall Street Journal in April 2006, Byrne contended that "blackguards have practiced 'failure to deliver'" of securities, were "destroying businesses and (probably) destabilizing our capital markets."[76][77] Since 2005, Overstock has filed two lawsuits relating to the matters under Byrne's direction.[78]
In the first lawsuit, filed 2005, Overstock.com filed suit against hedge fund Rocker Partners and the equities research firm, Gradient Analytics (formerly Camelback Research Alliance), saying they illegally colluded in short-selling the company while paying for negative reports to drive down share prices.[79] The defendant (i.e. Gradient Analytics et al.) moved to have the case dismissed, however the California court ruled in August 2006 that the suit should be allowed to proceed.[80] Gradient filed a counter-complaint against Byrne for libel.[81] A portion of this suit was settled out of court on October 13, 2008, when Overstock.com and Gradient dropped the claims against each other after Gradient retracted allegations that Overstock's reporting methods did not comply with rules established by the FASB, stated they believed Overstock.com complied with GAAP standards, and that three directors were independent, and apologized.[82][83] In December 2009, the suit against Rocker, whose name had since been changed to Copper River Partners, was settled by Copper River paying $5 million,[84] payment of which Byrne stated he received on December 9, 2009.[85]
Overstock.com filed a second lawsuit in 2007 against a number of large investment banks relating directly to alleged illegal naked short selling.[86] Both cases remain in litigation.[87]
Byrne's campaign against naked short selling and others who he feels have targeted him and his company has attracted controversy. In her article on Byrne's 2005 conference call, Bethany McLean said "From a distance he seems like a bully, accusing people who depend on their reputations of corruption. The time is rapidly approaching when he will have to deliver--both the numbers to prove that the business can make money and the facts to prove that the Sith Lord exists." In a column in the New York Times in February 2006, journalist Joseph Nocera described Byrne's actions as a "campaign of menace" and as an attempt to silence Overstock.com's critics.[88][89] MarketWatch's Herb Greenberg has called Byrne the runner-up for Worst CEO of the Year two years running.[90] One of Byrne's claims, that naked shorting can cause heavy dilution of a company's stock by creating sales untied to any specific shares, has been criticized by Wall Street Journal columnist Holman W. Jenkins. Byrne has cited Overstock.com as an example of a company whose shares have been more than 100% sold short in one quarter, but Jenkins suggests that this merely reflects Overstock.com's heavy trading volume and relatively small public float. Jenkins further argues that brokers are inherently cautious in using the practice, due to the high risk of trading shares that are not guaranteed to be available.[91] Byrne has denied that his campaign is primarily about Overstock.com.[92] However, Byrne has also received favorable coverage, and was featured in a Bloomberg Television show on Naked Short Selling, "Phantom Shares",[93] in March 2007.
In March 2006, John (Jack) Byrne, chairman of Overstock.com and father of Patrick Byrne, said that he was thinking of stepping down in disagreement over the campaign against naked shorting.[94] In April 2006, John Byrne stepped down to become vice-chairman, and in July of that year he resigned from Overstock's board of directors. In August 2008, Jack Byrne said that after "much initial skepticism" he believed his son was "right all along" about the battle and lawsuits with short-sellers and analysts.[95]
Byrne was instrumental in Utah's passage of a law aimed at curbing naked short selling. The legislation was repealed in February 2007, after state representatives were advised that it probably would not withstand judicial scrutiny due to federal preemption.[96] Byrne criticized the repeal,[97] but Senate Majority Leader Curtis Bramble said that legal advisers believed that the state would lose any litigation over the law.[97]
A Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of Gradient was initiated but then dropped in February 2007.[98][99] In July 2007, two American Stock Exchange options market makers were fined and suspended for using Regulation SHO exemptions to "impermissibly engage in naked short selling" in trades involving options and stocks for their own account. Overstock shares were believed to be among the stocks traded. The market makers settled without admitting or denying the allegations. None of the defendants sued by Overstock were named in the decision, but the Dow Jones News Service said that the decision was likely to be used by Byrne in pursuing his case.[100][101][102]
After the crisis in the North American markets in 2008, Byrne received positive press. A Salt Lake Tribune article reported that "These days, when people talk of Byrne, the word 'vindication' comes up a lot."[103]
Byrne was criticized by the Lex column of the Financial Times in November 2009, after Overstock.com fired its second auditor in nine months and filed an unreviewed quarterly financial statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Referring to his campaign against naked shorting, the newspaper said that "The weirdness of his message and his attacks on respected journalists who dared to disagree have not helped his cause."[104]
Defamation Lawsuit
Patrick Byrne was named in an antidefamation lawsuit by Altaf Nazerali in a Canadian Court. "[105]
Awards and Media attention
Since Byrne launched Overstock.com in 1999, he and his company have garnered attention from numerous national media outlets in addition to its coverage of his campaign against naked shorting. Among them are the Wall Street Journal, ABC News with Peter Jennings, Fortune, CBS Marketwatch, and BusinessWeek, among others. He has also appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, and Fox News shows such as Your World with Neil Cavuto. In 2002, Byrne was named to BusinessWeek’s list of the 25 most influential people in e-Business in 2002: the magazine cited survival strength and vision as qualities that qualified Byrne for the list.[51] and Ernst & Young awarded Byrne the "2002 Milestone Award Winner Utah Region."[52][59] Also in 2003 Overstock came no.1 in MountainWest Capital Network (MWCN) Utah100 award for the fastest growing company in Utah. Fastest Growing category are based on percentage revenue increases in the five preceding years.[106] Byrne also won the first-ever Utah Best of State Awards for Community Development in 2003.[107]
Education lobbying
In 2005, Byrne provided financial backing to form the advocacy group First Class Education, whose goal is to change state laws to require schools to spend at least 65 percent of their operating budgets on classroom expenses. Proponents of the standard contend that it would free up money to increase teachers' salaries without requiring tax increases. Critics say that many services deemed "non-classroom" are necessary for education, including librarians, school nurses, guidance counselors, food service workers and school bus drivers.[108][109][110]
Byrne also serves as co-chair (with Rose Friedman) for The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. The non-profit organization was founded by Milton and Rose Friedman and promotes school vouchers and other forms of school choice.[111]
Byrne and his family contributed most of the funds in support of House Bill 148 in Utah, a bill that would allow the state to provide funding vouchers for students who decide to leave public schools for private schools.[112] In January 2008, it was reported that Byrne and his parents contributed about $4 million to the pro-voucher campaign, or three-quarters of its $5.4 million funding. Opponents of vouchers, funded mostly by the teacher unions, spent $4 million; approximately $3 million came from the National Education Association.[113][114] When that bill was defeated in a statewide referendum (62% opposing vs. 38% favoring),[115] the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Byrne "called the referendum a 'statewide IQ test' that Utahns failed." He said, "They don't care enough about their kids. They care an awful lot about this system, this bureaucracy, but they don't care enough about their kids to think outside the box."[116]
Byrne criticized Utah governor Jon Huntsman for not sufficiently supporting the voucher campaign. According to Byrne, Huntsman had before he was elected stated that he was "going to be the voucher governor," and Byrne had donated $75,000 to Huntsman's campaign for governor in 2004. However, to Byrne's disappointment, the moment Huntsman was elected he went missing from the debate, and Byrne told the Associated Press that he would now bankroll anyone who could defeat Huntsman at the polls, "even a communist".[117]
During the school voucher debate, Byrne said of high school dropouts, "Right now, 40 percent of Utah minorities are not graduating from high school. You may as well burn those kids. That's the end of their life. That's the end of their ability to achieve in this society if they do not get a high school education. You might as, just throw the kids away." He was criticized for the comment by the Utah NAACP, but rejected their demand for an apology.[118]
University Lectures
Date | Venue | Title | Synopsis/Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Oct 16, 2012 | Rutgers University | Praxis, Praxis, Praxis: How Entrepreneurship, Philosophy and Libertarianism Made Me 2007's "Most Hated Man on Wall Street | [119] |
May 11, 2011 | Stanford University | Bringing Humanities Ph.D. Innovation to Silicon Valley: A Case for Rising Above Your Principles | [120] |
Nov 4, 2009 | Rutgers University | Praxis, Dilemma Morality, and the Failed Philosopher. | [121][122] |
Apr 30, 2009 | University of Montana | Mental Models and Social Entrepreneurship | [123] |
Feb 16, 2009 | Tuck School of Business | Founders’ Forum with Patrick Byrne D’85, CEO, Overstock.com | [124][125][126] |
Oct 2, 2008 | University of Utah | DeepCapture | [127] |
Mar 3, 2008 | University of Utah | Diluting the Discourse: How Special Interest Groups Capture the Media | [128] |
Dec 5, 2007 | BYU | BYU eBusiness Lecture Series | [129] |
2006 | Stanford University | Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com on Social Innovation | [130] |
2005 | Stanford University | A Dialog on Corporate Social Responsibility | [131][132] |
Wall Street Presentations
Date | Venue | Title | Synopsis/Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Oct 18, 2007 | The PIPEs Conference 2007 | A Value Investor Looks at Stock Manipulation "DeepCapture" | [13] |
Jan 2006 | BusinessJive | The Dark Side of The Looking Glass: The Corruption of our Capital Markets | [133] |
Aug 12, 2005 | CNBC | CNBCs Ron Insana and the Miscreants Ball - August 12, 2005 | [134][135] |
Aug 11, 2005 | Overstock.com Webcast | Overstock.com Webcast Regarding August 11 Lawsuit "Miscreants Ball" | [136][137][138] |
Wall Street Writings
Educational Choice Speeches
Date | Venue | Title | Synopsis/Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Feb 2010 | Rotary Club of Oklahoma | K-12 Education Government Spending | [151][152] |
Nov 5, 2009 | Economic Club of Indiana | The Economic Club of Indiana Speaker Archive - Patrick Byrne | [153] |
Audio and Video Interviews
See also
References
- ^ Stein, Nicholas (February 7, 2000). "The Renaissance Man of E-Commerce Patrick Byrne has done more in his 37 years than most do in a lifetime. Will that make his company, Overstock.com, a success?". Fortune.
...But that seems almost trivial compared with what Byrne has done along the way. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford and black belts in Hapkido and Taekwondo. He has bicycled across the U.S. three times, studied moral philosophy at Cambridge as a Marshall fellow, and briefly pursued a career in boxing. Byrne also speaks Mandarin--not to mention four other foreign languages--and translated Lao Tse's Way of Virtue during his senior year at Dartmouth. He has a nearly photographic memory
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(help) - ^ Tsuruoka, Doug (July 09, 2010). "Ex-Boxer Byrne's Bid: Love-Bomb Customers". Investor's Business Daily.
Some might call Patrick Byrne, CEO of e-tailer Overstock.com, a Renaissance man. A black belt in tae kwon do who once pursued a career in professional boxing, Byrne holds a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in philosophy and Asian studies. He was a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University in Britain and has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University. He's also bicycled across the U.S. ...
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(help) - ^ Mitchell, Donald W. (2009). "Accomplish And Enjoy More By Being Grateful" (PDF). Donald W. Mitchell.
...and began corresponding with Patrick Byrne, Ph.D. who was then the CEO of Overstock.com, a company that sold excess inventory over the Internet at bargain prices. In Dr. Byrne, Dr. Fekete found a true Renaissance man.
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(help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick (April 30, 2009). "Mental Models and Social Entrepreneurship". University of Montana, Gilkey Executive Lecture Series. pp. 4:00.
Introduction: "He is Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com... received a bachelors degree in philosophy and Asian studies from Darthmouth College, a masters in philosophy from Cambridge University, and a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University... in 2005 Patrick began a vigorous campaign against corruption in our capital markets (securities manipulation), has biked across the United States on four different occasions, professional boxer, black belt in Taekwondo... he truly is a man of all seasons."
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(help) - ^ Fabrizio, Doug (December 20, 2007). "Who is Patrick Byrne?". UtahNOW. pp. 1:00 - 1:40, 22:10.
These days ears prick up when they hear the name of the businessman Patrick Byrne.In Utah, they are extremely grateful for his support in the school vouher effort, or offended by the way he chided those that wouldn't go along. Outside the state, people's ears prick up as well. For years now he has been involved in a very public battle with Wall Street. But there is more to Patrick Byrne that any one controversy. He has a PHD in philosophy from Stanford, he studied at Cambridge, he speaks 5 languages including Mandarin, he's bicycled aross the U.S. three times, he has black belts in Hapkido and Taekwondo, he even considered a career in boxing." .... "You probably get this one alot, because I've heard it said, that Patrick Byrne is a bit of a genius? Is it true that you have a photographic memory?
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(help) - ^ Ernst & Young (November 21, 2011). "Innovation and philanthropy: Dr. Patrick M. Byrne, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, named Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur Of The Year". Ernst & Young.
Byrne was recognized for his ability to spot opportunity in the online retail industry, giving rise to the first online site used for inventory liquidations, as well as for enhancing the online shopping experience. Having carved out a niche for the company, Byrne was able to weather the storm of the internet bubble and to lead the Salt Lake City-based Overstock.com and its sister philanthropic-retail sites to the top of the industry.
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(help) - ^ Asman, David (June, 2011). "Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne Endorses Ron Paul for President – June 2011". Fox News.
Let's ask one of the pioneers in internet sales, Overstock.com founder and CEO, Patrick Byrne
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(help) - ^ Overstock.com. "Overstock.com CEO on Worldstock, Education, and Wall Street Corruption". Overstock.com.
Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne is often in the news regarding his efforts to curtail injustice. These include his efforts to combat global poverty (through our Worldstock department and products), improve educational outcomes for the less fortunate (through his work with the late Milton Friedman and his support of Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation's school voucher initiative), battle the pernicious effect on America of Wall Street corruption in the form of naked short selling and collusion among hedge funds, prime brokers, and a few research analysts (as are detailed in lawsuits Overstock has filed against Gradient Analytics, Rocker Partners & Wall Street's major prime brokers), and expose corruption in business journalism via a handful of shill journalists who seek to hijack social media's discourse regarding this scandal so that understanding does not form within the Blogosphere.
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at position 654 (help) - ^ Overstock.com. "Leadership, Executive Team". Overstock.com.
Dr. Patrick Michael Byrne is Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Overstock.com, Inc., a Utah-based internet retailer that has been publicly traded since 2002. Under Patrick's leadership the company's annual revenue has grown from $1.8 million in 1999 to 1.1 billion in 2010, with $14 million of GAAP net income.
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(help) - ^ Gualandi, Stacey (August 03, 2009). "Patrick Byrne: Testicular Cancer Survivor". CancerConnect.
That is what drives his work now. He is an avid philanthropist, creating Worldstock.com to end global poverty, and he even bicycled across the United States for cancer research.
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(help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick. "The Worldstock Fair Trade Story". Overstock.com.
I realized that what Overstock had already built as a supply chain, for dealing with liquidation which is dealing with very small lots, dissimilar products, very scattered group of suppliers, that we could take that supply chain and apply it to artisans as well..." "As of August 6, 2012, $84,513,779 has been given back to Worldstock artisans.
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(help) - ^ Nerenberg, Jenara (December 23, 2010). "Fair Trade Shopping Site Worldstock.com Profits Without Trying". Fast Company.
Worldstock was started by Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne--a former developmental theorist with a PhD in philosophy--who, after years of running Overstock, took a trip to Southeast Asia for some time off. It was there that he realized that local artisans in those countries had the same issues that his clients in the United States were struggling with--access to markets... That was the birth of Worldstock back in September 2001...So what is Worldstock doing with all that extra money laying around? Building schools.
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(help) - ^ a b Byrne, Patrick (October 18, 2007). "A Value Investor Looks at Stock Manipulation".
"For years Patrick Byrne dismissed rumors of wildly illegal schemes to destroy small-cap stocks for profit, all under the blind eye of captured regulators and with the cooperation of elements of the financial media. In this presentation he discuses his thoughts on how stock manipulations have evolved to the point that they can crack the scale, and reveals information that every value investor and entrepreneur should care about." Recording at: http://www.deepcapturethemovie.com/
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- ^ Byrne, Patrick (April 04, 2011). "Paragon of Integrity Whitney Tilson Gets Laryngitis, Too". DeepCapture.
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(help) - ^ Sramana Mitra (December 23, 2009). "How a Warren Buffet Protégé Built Overstock.com: CEO Patrick Byrne". Sramana Mitra.
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(help) - ^ Stokes, Kyle (August 02, 2012). "Interactive Map: Who's Giving Money In The Campaign For State Superintendent". StateImpact.
First, the committee has received $250,000 since 2008 from Indiana native, Utah resident, Overstock.com founder, "Warren Buffett protégé" and Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice chairperson Patrick Byrne — himself an individual donor to Bennett's campaign.
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(help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick (September 24, 2001). "Worldstock Socially Responsible Goods". Overstock.com.
I earned a doctorate in philosophy at Stanford, but took forays into jurisprudence, development economics, and philosophical issues related to poverty. In addition, starting in 1983 I spent fair chunks of my life in China, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Arab Gulf and Levant. In the course of these studies and travels...
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(help) - ^ Kerig, William A. "Author Bio". William A. Kerig.
In 2003, he traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to produce and direct Byrning Borders, a television pilot about the globetrotting adventures of Patrick Byrne, a philosopher/philanthropist/dot com CEO who was setting up an international network to help artisans in the poorest and most dangerous countries sell their goods on the Internet.
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(help); Text "William A. Kerig" ignored (help) - ^ BigThink (October 29, 2007). "Patrick Byrne: What have you learned from the martial arts?". BigThink.
When I was trying to make it as a boxer...
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(help) - ^ Gates, Chuck (September 27, 2009). "Out of the box: Year after financial meltdown a Utah original shoots from the hip". Desert News.
He dabbled as a professional boxer, has a black belt in tae kwon do, and trained with Royce Gracie, the godfather of Ultimate Fighting, before the sport ever existed.
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(help) - ^ Stanford University (2011). "2011 Speakers: Bringing Humanities Ph.D. Innovation to Silicon Valley". Stanford University.
Patrick received a bachelor's degree in philosophy and Asian studies from Dartmouth College, a master's in philosophy from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University.
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(help) - ^ Desert News (June 10, 2002). "Byrne has hands chock full with his liquidation dot-com". Desert News.
He's chairman, chief executive officer and president of Overstock.com. He's a general partner in High Plains Investments LLC and a board member of White Mountains Insurance Group and Atlantic Aviation. He knows nine languages, is a published writer and is a boxer with a black belt in tae kwon do.
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(help) - ^ SquareOne Publishers. "Tao Te Ching The Way of Virtue, Translated by Patrick M. Byrne". SquareOne Publishers.
For those readers who are looking for a purer interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, researcher Patrick M. Byrne has produced a translation that is extremely accurate, while capturing the pattern and harmony of the original. Here is a Tao Te Ching that you can enjoy, understand, and value.
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(help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick (March 29, 2011). "Rut Roh. The "Stock Manipulator" Meme Finally Escapes the Box. Somebody Call Somebody". DeepCapture.
DeepCapture is seeing an influx of visitors, many of them new. So I am going to give a concise explanation of the stock manipulation meme that Deep Capture explores...
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(help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick. "Introduction to the Deep Capture Analysis". DeepCapture.
Since I began stating this theory in 2005 my argument has been widely misreported. Therefore I will state it here as nine straightforward claims that will be difficult to misunderstand or misconstrue.
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(help) - ^ Mattoon, Jeff (July 2005). ""Professional Recreationalist" Orders Indy Racer for the Sky, Airport Journals". Airport Journals.
Byrne started flying young and now holds multi-engine, instrument, and sea plane ratings, and has logged 1,100 hours. Growing up mostly in New Hampshire and Vermont, he took the traditional route of flight training by starting small and working his way up. He went from a Cessna 150 to a 172, and spent some time in a Grumman Cheetah and a Piper Navaho, but the plane he most admired was a Lake Amphibian Turbo Renegade.
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(help) - ^ Philanthropy Magazine (Winter 2010). "Interview with Patrick Byrne, Champion of Choice". PhilanthropyRoundtable.
Your philanthropic work occurs in three basic areas: education, public policy, and international development. How did this portfolio come into being?
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(help) - ^ The Friedman Foundation For Educational Choice. "Dr. Patrick Byrne (Chairman)". The Friedman Foundation For Educational Choice.
Towards those ends, Patrick serves as chairman of the Milton & Rose Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, supporting legislative reform to bring educational choice to parents. Patrick has also founded 19 schools internationally that currently educate more than 6,000 combined students.
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(help) - ^ The Friedman Foundation For Educational Choice (July 21, 2008). "Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com Dr. Patrick M. Byrne Named Co-Chair of Friedman Foundation".
the Friedman Foundation for Educational choice today announced that Dr. Patrick M. Byrne has been unanimously elected co-chairman of the board. "I think he is the right choice," said Dr. Rose D. Friedman, economist and co-founder of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. "Patrick will be loyal to the Friedman philosophy of school choice for all children, and I know he is anxious to get going.
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(help) - ^ Poe, Sheryll (September 21, 2012). "Overstock.com CEO Takes Aim at Education Reform, Skills Gap". Free Enterprise.
As someone who trained as a professional boxer, Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne can certainly take some punches. He started his speech at the U.S. Chamber by noting that he is public enemy number one, according to the National Education Association. It's a distinction that the outspoken supporter of school vouchers and education reform is quite proud of.
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(help) - ^ Stanford University (2011). "2011 Speakers: Bringing Humanities Ph.D. Innovation to Silicon Valley". Stanford University.
In 2005, Patrick began a vigorous campaign against corruption in our capital markets through securities manipulation. His stance quickly caught the attention of Wall Street analysts and reporters and remains a point of high controversy today. For more information, visit Patrick's business blog www.deepcapture.com
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(help) - ^ Oberbeck, Steven (August 03, 2008). "Wall Street war: A win for Utahn". The Salt Lake Tribune.
Over the past several years, Patrick Byrne's campaign to clean up Wall Street and end a practice that has destroyed companies and cost unwary investors billions of dollars, generated plenty of publicity for him, mostly the wrong kind...Critics labeled him nuts, a conspiracy theorist, a complete wack job...These days, when people talk of Byrne, the word "vindication" comes up a lot... "You can always tell who the pioneers are - they're the ones with all the arrows sticking out of their backs," said James Angel, a finance professor at Georgetown University. "You really can't understate what Byrne has accomplished."
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(help) - ^ O.co, Overstock.com. "O.co aka Overstock.com vs. Goldman Sachs: A True David & Goliath Story". O.co, Overstock.com.
For six years Overstock.com has waged a war to expose Wall Street mischief. We did not go looking for a fight, but our company was attacked, and we learned we were not alone: the same manipulation-for-profit tools that Wall Street had deployed against us had also been deployed against many American companies, harming job creation, innovation, and economic growth. We knew that if left unchecked and unexposed, Wall Street's games could ultimately damage U.S. capital markets.
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(help) - ^ Kerig, Bill (June 16, 2003). "An IPO Path Less Taken". Wasatch Digital IQ.
The Wall Street system is corrupt," he said, ... Still, Byrne needed money for his company. Enter Silicon Valley pioneer Bill Hambrecht. In February 1999, W.R. Hambrecht launched something called the OpenIPO system, which was an auction-based method of taking companies public. "His system is basically a Dutch auction," said Byrne... "All the white-shoe guys on Wall Street hate this because there's no guaranteed profit,
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(help) - ^ Knight, Jerry (August 23, 2004). "Google Not The First To Go Dutch". The Washington Post.
"That's when I smelled a skunk," said Patrick Byrne, chief executive of Overstock.com, one of the first companies to go public under the Hambrecht system in 2002. "It was an orchestrated campaign by the banks that just didn't want to see it succeed." Byrne said investment bankers also were behind stories saying Google's presentations to big investors did not go well, that there was no institutional demand for Google shares and that the stock was likely to tank on the first day of trading as IPO investors bailed out. Byrne said that in 2002, when he brought up the idea of a Dutch auction IPO for Overstock.com, "Wall Street was able to just laugh at us. Google has the clout that Wall Street couldn't do that.
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(help) - ^ David Gardner, Tom Gardner (February 20, 2004). "Fool.com: Two Lessons From Buffett [Special] February 20, 2004". Motley Fool.
Can you just lay out the Hambrecht? ... "Sure. A lot of the nefarious behavior that came to light from Wall Street in the last three or four years, was really, really driven by a pathological IPO process." ... "This guy Frank Quattrone, who is making 50% of it back in kickbacks. This isn't the exception. This is how Wall Street operates. So Hambrecht comes along, and I mean at the heart of Wall Street, this is how it is done. It is so crooked you can't believe these guys aren't in jail.
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(help) - ^ Nocera, Joe (February 25, 2006). "Overstock's Campaign of Menace". New York Times.
If you know anything about Patrick Byrne, it's probably his famous Sith Lord conference call. Held last summer, it was an hourlong monologue during which Byrne laid out a vast, overarching conspiracy, made up of dozens of Wall Street players - including the New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer! - all under the thumb of an mysterious puppet master, whom Byrne labeled the Sith Lord. He titled the conspiracy The Miscreants' Ball, an obvious reference to Michael Milken's old Predators' Ball.
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(help) - ^ Rocker Partners, L.P. (October 14, 2005). "Rocker Partners Responds To Amended Complaint Filed by Overstock.com, Inc". PRNewswire.
When Overstock filed its initial Complaint two months ago, Dr. Byrne held a bizarre teleconference with his shareholders, alleging a vast conspiracy composed of securities analysts, hedge funds, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, all of whom were alleged to be part of a so-called 'Miscreant's Ball' and who were allegedly conspiring to destroy Overstock. According to Dr. Byrne, this entire conspiracy was supposedly masterminded by a 'Sith Lord.'
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(help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick (December 08, 2009). "Rocker Pays $5 Million to Overstock.com to Settle Lawsuit". PRNewswire, Overstock.com.
Dear Owner: The good guys won. I announced Overstock's lawsuit against Rocker in an August 12, 2005 conference call I titled, "The Miscreants' Ball". In that call (and in subsequent elaboration on DeepCapture.com) I claimed that a network of dirty Wall Street players was engineering modern bear raids, destroying companies and destabilizing the system. I claimed that the network of hedge fund manipulators and compliant reporters intersected in a dirty journalist named Jim Cramer. In the network, I claimed, were hedge funds such as David Rocker's; putatively independent research firms like Gradient which essentially took dictation from hedge funds; a small group of financial journalists such as Herb Greenberg and Carol Remond who, it appears, also took assignments from this hedge fund network; Milberg Weiss (a plaintiff's class action law firm which was coordinating its lawsuits with these bear raids); and Eliot Spitzer (whose investigations as New York's Attorney General mirrored the trading activities of these hedge funds, which were among his largest backers). In addition, I said that the SEC was saying grace over all of this because they had become hopelessly "captured" by Wall Street's worst elements...
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at position 14 (help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick (December 08, 2009). "Rocker Pays $5 Million to Overstock.com to Settle Lawsuit". Bloomberg.
'A fine victory for Overstock, a triumph for the cause of cleaning up US capital markets' says CEO Patrick Byrne. ...the SEC's turn-a-blind-eye deference towards Wall Street has been revealed by the Aguirre and Madoff-Markopoulis affairs (if not much more); Milberg Weiss imploded under DOJ indictments and its leaders were jailed; Jim Cramer was exposed on national TV for the scoundrel he is; Eliot Spitzer was also exposed (but not yet, I believe, for his real connection to this crew); Herb Greenberg and others of the journalists I named have crawled under rocks (or gone to work for the hedge fund network for which I had so implausibly claimed they were shilling); David Rocker's hedge fund melted down (thanks, according to DowJones, to the SEC finally closing the gaping option market maker loophole against which Overstock had been lobbying for three years - if only, the SEC would now institute a pre-borrow requirement); and Rocker Partners has paid Overstock $5 million (that is on top of Gradient's earlier retraction and apology, and any monies Gradient paid which I cannot disclose). So let's score that one for the good guys.
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at position 74 (help) - ^ Byrne, Patrick (December 08, 2009). "Rocker Pays $5 Million to Overstock.com to Settle Lawsuit". EuroInvestor.
In the landmark case, filed in Marin County, California August 11, 2005, Overstock.com, along with shareholder plaintiffs, sued Gradient Analytics, Inc.; Rocker Partners, L.P.; Rocker Management, LLC; Rocker Offshore Management Company, Inc. and their respective principals. On October 12, 2005, Overstock.com filed an amended complaint against the same entities alleging libel, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage and violations of California's unfair business practices act.
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specified (help) - ^ O.co, Overstock.com. "O.co aka Overstock.com vs. Goldman Sachs: A True David & Goliath Story". O.co, Overstock.com.
So in 2005 and 2007 we filed two lawsuits. The first case was against a hedge fund (Rocker Partners) and hatchet-job-for-hire research team (Gradient Analytics), both with ties to Jim Cramer. The second case was against a group of eleven Wall Street prime brokers, culminating in Goldman Sachs. The hedge fund in question (Rocker Partners) hired famed lawyer David Boies, and the prime brokers showed up with an army of the most prestigious law firms in America. Our lawyers were Dore Griffinger, Ellen Cirangle, Jonathan Sommer and Catherine Jackson of Stein & Lubin, a small but excellent San Francisco law firm.
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(help) - ^ Gullo, Karen (May 17, 2012). "Goldman, Merrill E-Mails Show Naked Shorting, Filing Says". Bloomberg.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Merrill Lynch & Co. employees discussed helping naked short-sales by market-maker clients in e-mails the banks sought to keep secret, including one in which a Merrill official told another to ignore compliance rules, Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK) said in a court filing...
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(help) - ^ Overstock.com. "Naked Short Selling". Overstock.com.
Patrick helped craft a pair of lawsuits filed by Overstock.com shareholders against the miscreants whose strategic, illegal naked shorting has kept companies like Overstock.com on the Reg SHO list for over two years now. The first lawsuit, filed in August of 2005 against Rocker Partners hedge fund and so-called independent research firm Gradient Analytics, claims libel, unfair business practices and tortuous interference. The second lawsuit, filed in January of 2007 against 12 Wall Street prime brokerages, claims a massive, illegal stock market manipulation scheme based on naked short selling: brokers lending shares they don't posses to short sellers with no intention of covering their illegal short positions to begin with; resulting in a dangerous build-up of persistent delivery failures.
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at position 222 (help) - ^ M.V. (May 15, 2012). "An enlightening mistake". The Economist.
In 2007 Overstock, a Utah-based online retailer, sued a dozen big brokers, alleging that they had caused its share price to fall sharply by helping their clients to engage in "naked" short selling...Goldman and Merrill have denied throughout that they participated in any sort of naked-shorting conspiracy...Nevertheless, the release of the e-mail excerpts will have done the brokers no favours. They suggest that trades were being intentionally failed; that some of those involved were aware regulators would not look kindly upon some of the activity; that some of the firms' internal policemen were unhappy with the explanations they received for the proliferation of fails; and that at least one senior executive appeared to have an unusual attitude towards compliance.
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(help) - ^ Mitchell, Mark (June, 2008). "The Story of Deep Capture". Deepcapture.com.
But in the time since the "Miscreants' Ball" presentation, Patrick has been better known for his fight against Wall Street – and for embracing something called the Market Reform Movement.
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(help) - ^ Remington, Rick (November 03, 2009). "Overstock.com CEO Lambasts Wall Street Excesses". Rutgers University.
Through his business blog www.deepcapture.com and the Market Reform Movement which he founded, Byrne continues to press for tighter regulatory reform of Wall Street.
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(help) - ^ Leonard, Wendy (March 07, 2008). "Media fueling corruption on Wall Street?". Desert News.
For the past couple years, Utah-based Internet shopping tycoon Patrick Byrne has been publicly defending his position that there's corruption on Wall Street — and he maintains a belief that journalism is at the heart of it... He's received support from some journalists, but continues to stand by his claims... "The United States is entering a deep, systemic pit — the sub-prime mortgage deal, I believe, is just a piece of it — and it might be a generation before we get out of it," he said. More of Byrne's opinions can be found online at www.deepcapture.com.
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(help) - ^ a b Riding on a Raft: Patrick Byrne and Overstock.com, by Duan, Jason, Bachelor, John A III. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, January 2006
- ^ 05/AR2010040502098.html Overstock's brash CEO delivers 1st annual profit, by Paul Foy, April 5, 2010, The Washington Post
- ^ a b businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_39/ b3801162.htm The e.biz 25: Staying Power?, September 30, 2002, BusinessWeek
- ^ a b SearchHallofFame.aspx Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Hall of Fame
- ^ The 10 Best Employers In Retail, December 2, 2010, Forbes
- ^ "A Boxer and Drug Baron's Unlikely Alliance", The Globe and Mail, March 2, 2006
- ^ Overstock.com Inc. Annual report on Form 10-K, Legal Proceedings, 2007
- ^ a b "Patrick Byrne: Off-Price Power," Business Week, Oct. 1, 2002
- ^ Patrick Byrne biography, Forbes.com
- ^ Interview with Byrne on NPR July 4, 2003
- ^ a b c Riding on a Raft: Patrick Byrne and Overstock.com, by Duan, Jason, Bachelor, John A III. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, Jan 2006
- ^ Handful give lots of $$, by Lee Davidson and Bob Bernick Jr., May 22, 2006, Deseret Morning News
- ^ Byrne, Patrick (2000). "Patrick Byrne's Heavy-Hitter Banquet Speech". Pan-Mass Challenge.
Mr. Starr has asked me to speak to you about my own experience, my own struggle with cancer, a struggle which occupied the three years of my life immediately after college, as well as the three transcontinental bicycle rides which helped me to recover physically and mentally from my cancer ordeal...I should tell you that I've never spoken publicly about cancer, and only rarely privately, to a handful of friends. And to borrow a line from Oscar Wilde, I warn you that you would have to have a heart of stone to listen to the story of my struggle with cancer without laughing. I'll be laughing and you're welcome to join in at any occasion. Also, I should tell you that I've always declined requests to speak about cancer because I feel as though I'm boasting, "Hey look at me, I cheated death." And in general that's just a bad idea, because I think in the end, he will take the last round. So with such caveats in place, per Billy's request, I will tell you my story of cancer...
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...Now for the first time, the CEO of Overstock.com describes how staying in the fight helped him beat cancer not once, not twice, but three times... Just weeks after graduating college, Byrne collapsed during a vacation in Scotland. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had metastasized throughout his body. He was only 22.
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(help) - ^ PAN-MASSACHUSETTS CHALLENGE (June 1, 2009). "30 Years in 30 Weeks — 2000". Pan-Mass Challenge.
"Many people had sought out Byrne to hear about his battle with and survival from three bouts of cancer so severe his recovery marveled doctors across the world. Yet, despite keeping his story private for years and turning down dozens and dozens of speaking opportunities, when Billy Starr called, Byrne was compelled." Mirror: http://www.pmc.org/blog/2009/6/1/30-years-30-weeks-2000
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- ^ Bond, Melissa (August 2008). "The Tao of Patrick" (PDF). Wasatch Journal.
He was in his early 20s when they diagnosed him with testicular cancer. And he had it not just once, but three times. By he third round, he says, he was done. "I had a particular kind of chemotherapy called Bleomycin," Byrne recalled. "I've had more of it than about any living person on the planet." The cancer was so virulent that they put him in an experimental group with six other participants. The chemotherapy was given in doses designed more as a check for toxicity than for efficacy. Byrne says that he would throw up 30, maybe 40 times a day.
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(help) - ^ Stein, Nicholas (February 7, 2000). "The Renaissance Man of E-Commerce Patrick Byrne has done more in his 37 years than most do in a lifetime. Will that make his company, Overstock.com, a success?". Fortune.
Though much of Byrne's zeal is innate, part of it stems from his bout with seminoma, a cancer that reduced his 6-foot 5-inch frame from 240 pounds to 164. It attacked him three times between 1985 and 1988, leaving his body scarred with the marks of 20 surgeries. He has been in remission for 12 years but admits that for a long time, the cancer made him think in three-month horizons.
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(help) - ^ Overstock.com, Inc. by Jeffrey Covell, in International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 75 (2004)
- ^ The Renaissance Man of E-Commerce Patrick Byrne has done more in his 37 years than most do in a lifetime. Will that make his company, Overstock.com, a success? by Nicholas Stein, February 7, 2000, [[Fortune (magazine)|]]
- ^ Overstock.com, Press Release, 2002
- ^ The Worldstock Story
- ^ Byrne’s War Overstock.com’s Patrick Byrne is On a Self-imposed Mission to Save Main Street from Wall Street, by Colin Kelly Jr., 4.18.2006
- ^ Overstocking in Afghanistan, by Johanna Glasner, 06.25.04, Wired
- ^ “IPO Dutch Auctions Vs. Traditional Allocation,” Forbes, May 10, 2004
- ^ Google Not the First to Go Dutch,” by Jerry Knight, The Washington Post, Aug. 23, 2004
- ^ “Overstock.com elects Clay Corbus, Hambrecht`s co-CEO, to its board,” Internet Retailer, March 12, 2007
- ^ "The Phantom Menace," by Bethany McLean, Fortune Magazine, Nov. 15, 2005
- ^ Patrick Byrne letter to Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2006
- ^ CNET interview with Byrne March 6, 2006
- ^ Overstock CEO reflects on Cramer debacle March 28, 2007
- ^ Overstock.Com versus Gradient Analytics et al.
- ^ Ruling, Superior Court; Overstock.Com versus Gradient Analytics et al.
- ^ "US Research firm countersues retailer Overstock.com," http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1544393520080415
- ^ Sage, Alexandria (2008-10-13). "Overstock says settled claims against Gradient". Business & Finance. Reuters. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
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(help) - ^ Beebe, Paul (2008-10-13). "Overstock.com settles suit with research firm". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ "Overstock says it settles with hedge fund". Reuters. 2008-12-08. Retrieved 2009-12-09.
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(help) - ^ Metz, Cade, "Overstock's Byrne claims $5m scalp over short selling: A new look for Miscreants' Ball", The Register, December 9, 2009.
- ^ Overstock sues brokers Feb. 3, 2007
- ^ Page expired - MSN Money
- ^ “Overstock's Campaign Of Menace” by Joe Nocera, The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2006
- ^ Revisiting Overstock.com and Utah, by Joe Nocera, The New York Times, Mar. 10, 2007
- ^ Worst CEO of 2006 goes to Ilia Lekach of Parlux: Commentary: Overstock's Byrne is runner up for the second straight year Dec 6, 2006
- ^ "Do Nudists Run Wall Street," The Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2006
- ^ "Letters : Here's the Naked Truth About Overstock" by Patrick Byrne, 21 Apr 2006, Wall Street Journal Online, The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2006
- ^ Bloomberg Television (March 12, 2007). "Phantom Shares".
- ^ “Overstock.com chairman mulls stepping down,” the Associated Press, March 3, 2006
- ^ Jack Byrne legendary in insurance circles, 08/04/2008, The Salt Lake Tribune
- ^ Brice Wallace (2007-03-01). "House acts to put end to 'naked short selling' bill". Deseret Morning News.
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(help) - ^ a b Bob Mims (2007-02-27). "Debate on repealing a statute on short selling prompts a verbal clash". Salt Lake Tribune (via lexisnexis).
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(help) - ^ SEC kills probe of Gradient, New York Post, February 14, 2007
- ^ Appeals court sides with Overstock.com, New York Post, May 31, 2007
- ^ Amex Disciplinary Decisions, SBA Trading
- ^ American Stock Exchange announcement of disciplinary action, July 31, 2007
- ^ Carol Remond (August 1, 2007), AMEX Nabs 2 for Reg SHO abuse; 1 Traded Overstock, Dow Jones Newswire
- ^ Steven Oberbeck, The Salt Lake Tribune Saturday, August 2, 2008. Also Naked shorting's early critic starts to see some vindication
- ^ "Overstock". Financial Times. 2009-11-24. Retrieved 2009-11-24.
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(help) - ^ "Nazerali v. Mitchell," In The Supreme Court of British Columbia, Oct. 19, 2011
- ^ MountainWest Capital Network
- ^ Best of State premiere is a winner, by Jake Parkinson, Jun 23, 2003, Deseret News (Salt Lake City),
- ^ Teaching Schools How to Spend By MATTHEW COOPER Jun. 20, 2005, Time magazine
- ^ "Here's an Idea: Put 65% of the Money Into Classrooms," New York Times, Jan. 4, 2006
- ^ "'65 cent solution' takes on ed establishment," Stateline.org, October 28, 2005
- ^ Friedman Foundation Board of Directors
- ^ The Salt Lake Tribune November 1, 2007
- ^ "Financing Voucher Fight," Deseret News, November 1, 2007
- ^ "Voucher battle costs both sides total of $9.3M," Salt Lake Tribune, Jan. 8, 2008,
- ^ Voters dislike vouchers
- ^ Vouchers go down in crushing defeat, The Salt Lake Tribune, November 7, 2007
- ^ "Overstock chief blasts Huntsman over vouchers," the Associated Press, Nov. 8, 2007
- ^ Overstock.com Founder Refuses to Apologize for Comments About Minority Dropouts, Fox News, Oct. 27, 2007
- ^ So why is Byrne so much less popular among investment bankers, traders, and analysts? Find out by watching this video of the lecture he gave at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey on October 16, 2012 Mr. Byrne spoke before an audience of Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences and Business School students at the Scholarly Communication Center, Alexander Library, College Avenue Campus, Rutgers-New Brunswick, at the invitation of Ernie Lepore, Professor of Philosophy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWg_b59Cktk
- ^ Patrick Byrne, CEO and founder of Overstock.com, is deeply involved in the world market and the use of the internet as means of doing business. He explains how his diverse academic background has given him an incredibly unique skill set and how this has affected his work as a CEO. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqNyaVSEsFI
- ^ 2 PM. Rutgers Philosophy Colloquium. "Praxis, Dilemma Morality, and the Failed Philosopher." Patrick Byrne. CEO and Chairman of the Board of Overstock.com. Seminar Room, 3 Seminary Place on College Avenue, Rutgers University, New Brunswick. http://www.princeton.edu/~harman/COG/2009/November-2009.html
- ^ http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/special-content/2009/overstock-com-ceo-la-20091103/
- ^ Patrick Michael Byrne, chair and CEO of Overstock.com, will present the spring 2009 Harold and Priscilla Gilkey Executive Lecture at UM on Thursday, April 30. Byrne will talk about "Mental Models and Social Entrepreneurship" at 6 p.m. in Gallagher Business Building Room 106. The event is free and open to the public. "http://www2.umt.edu/urelations/nf/archive/042009.html" "Overstock.com CEO To Speak At UM" "April 20, 2009 | Vol. 37, No. 30"
- ^ http://www.notio.com/2009/02/patrick-byrne-at-dartmouth-tuck-school/
- ^ http://www.den.dartmouth.edu/education_and_events/past_events.htm
- ^ http://www.den.dartmouth.edu/documents/DENWinter2009FinalNewsletter.pdf
- ^ Patrick Byrne, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, will speak about what he feels is a massive systematic failure in the financial system, which is allowing billions of dollars to be siphoned out of the system through an illegal tactic known as “naked short selling.” Dr. Byrne argues that few people know about this crime because our regulators and business journalists – the very watchdogs charged with keeping this from happening – have been unduly influenced. Dr. Byrne has spent the past three years raising awareness of the naked short selling ticking time bomb. Along the way, he has documented many examples of how deeply “captured” regulators and the media have become. "http://eventful.com/saltlakecity_ut/events/deep-capture-given-patrick-byrne-/E0-001-015786835-2" "DEEP CAPTURE GIVEN BY PATRICK BYRNE" "October 2, 2008"
- ^ The J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah presents Patrick Byrne, chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, who will talk on “Diluting the Discourse: How Special Interest Groups Capture the Media,” on Monday, March 3, at noon in the Saltair Room, Olpin Union Building. The event is free and open to the public. Patrick Byrne, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, will speak about the ease with which media outlets, both large and small, can be captured by special interests. Byrne has garnered attention from numerous national media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, ABC News with Peter Jennings, and CBS Marketwatch, among others. "http://www.alumni.utah.edu/u-news/march08/?display=byrne_lecture.html" "The Marriott Library Presents Patrick Byrne, Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com — March 3"
- ^ BYU eBusiness Lecture Series
- ^ Solutions Magazine, in partnership with FUSION, BASES, the Social Venture Club at the GSB, and Engineers for a Sustainable World, is videotaping Stanford's annual lecture series in social innovation. Offered since 2000, students and members of the public can watch lectures live on Mondays at 7:30 P.M. in room S-180 in the Stanford Graduate School of Business (students register for Urban Studies 131). This week's guest speaker is Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFnGAbnwF_k
- ^ In this debut lecture of the Arrow series, Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com and Ethics Center’s Advisory Board member, and David Luban of Georgetown’s Law School, focused on central themes in business ethics and corporate philanthropy. http://ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu/ethics-events/arrow-lectures/past-arrow-lectures/
- ^ Solutions Magazine, in partnership with the Stanford Center on Ethics and the Ethics in Society Program, videotaped this discussion on corporate social responsibility at Stanford's Law School. This discussion between Patrick Byrne and David Luban was moderated by Lawrence Quill, the Director of the Stanford Center on Ethics. www.youtube.com/watch?v=omHFDzuKNV0
- ^ This presentation, created in 2006, launched the popular market reform movement. Overstock.com CEO Dr. Patrick Byrne explains illegal naked short selling, its roots and risks, in terms anybody can understand. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpWzOjB8qtU
- ^ Slides http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/13/131091/pdf/OSTK050812.pdf
- ^ Transcript http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/13/131091/pdf/121205.pdf
- ^ Slides http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/13/131091/pdf/OSTK050812.pdf
- ^ Transcript http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/13/131091/pdf/121205.pdf
- ^ "CNBCs Ron Insana and the Miscreants Ball - August 12, 2005" "DeepCaptureBlog" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfK4KeM4wT0
- ^ "I first heard of William K. Black over 20 years ago as the regulator who had stood up to the “Keating 5″ and come out the hero of the S&L crisis (in which I gained some early experience: hence my awareness of him). Later, as a professor of law and economics at University of Missouri in [...]"
- ^ "Barron's published an essay cribbed from a previously-published essay by a competing magazine's journalist in a plagiarization so bald it would not pass muster in one of those companies that sell term papers to college undergraduates."
- ^ "A story is told that Bertrand Russell, while teaching for a year in India, was once interrupted from a lecture on modern cosmology by an audience member who declared, “The universe rides on the back of a turtle.” To which Russell replied, “But what’s the turtle ride on?” “Another turtle,” replied the audience member. Insisted [...]"
- ^ "The first time I heard Joe Floren speak I was standing behind him in an elevator in his law firm’s San Francisco office tower as another lawyer informed him that the subpoena Joe Floren had served the previous day on a colleague of mine had reached her in the hospital, after a difficult delivery of [...]"
- ^ "On March 10, 2011, Alvin E. Entin, Esquire, counsel to one Barry Minkow, filed with a Florida court a “Motion to Withdraw” as Barry Minkow’s lawyer. Mr. Entin was (unusually for a lawyer) closed-mouth about his reasons, saying only that he and Barry Minkow had reached “irreconcilable differences.” Here is Alvin Entin’s Motion to Withdraw. [...]"
- ^ "The sounds of squealing could be heard over the low hum of the air recirculation machinery in the drab, windowless federal interview room. “Please!” Sam Antar wimpered. “Let me write one more smear. Let me feel like I’m a player, one last time!” The federal agent spoke sharply: “Silence!” She turned to look at her [...]"
- ^ "In the summer of 2006 Whitney Tilson took me to lunch, and invited me to speak at his then-upcoming 2nd Annual Value Investing Congress on November 9 – 10, 2006. Here is Whitney’s original announcement: World’s Most Influential Value Investors to Gather This November in New York City The 2nd Annual New York Value Investing [...]"
- ^ "In October 2011, Ali Nazerali, a Canadian resident who has operated boiler rooms (though he denies it) and whose business relationships drew the scrutiny of DeepCapture, went to court in British Columbia to obtain an injunction ordering DeepCapture to be vanished. In an ex parte proceeding (meaning that DeepCapture was not even notified of the proceedings, [...]"
- ^ "Here’s the Naked Truth About Overstock.com Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. Then you win.” Holman Jenkins Jr.’s April 12 Business World column “Do Nudists Run Wall Street?” moves us to stage No. 3: It contains the normal amount of distortion I have come to expect [...]"
- ^ "Mark Mitchell’s writings seem to be striking a nerve, at last. After months of no response but silence, in the last few weeks DeepCapture has suddenly been receiving all manner of Nasty-Grams and intimidating phone calls from various people and organizations mentioned in Mark’s work. The similarity of the threats would almost make one think [...]"
- ^ "In some respects the financial crisis is what the Mafia calls a "bust-out", but on a gigantic scale."
- ^ “Minkow’s manipulation of the market … caused a severe drop in the stock prices of a large local corporation. This type of deceit and abuse of trust will not be tolerated… we will investigate and prosecute stock manipulation cases to help protect the integrity of our capital markets…When false statements are disseminated to deceive the [...]"
- ^ Uploaded on Apr 16, 2010 Patrick Byrne, chairman of The Foundation for Educational Choice, addressing the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City on the topic of school choice. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW-gadYHfIg
- ^ In February, school-choice advocate Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock.com, came to Oklahoma for a press conference, a speech to a joint meeting of Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis clubs in Oklahoma City (Price introduced him), and a meeting with key civic leaders in Tulsa. http://www.phillipsmurrah.com/school-choice-in-oklahoma
- ^ The chairman and chief executive officer of Overstock.com will speak to the Economic Club of Indiana next month. Fort Wayne native Patrick Byrne started with the online retailer in 1999 and launched Worldstock.com in 2001. He has also founded 19 international schools. Byrne's November 5 speech at the Indiana Convention Center will focus on education. http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=37966
- ^ Dan Ferris and Aaron interview the CEO of Overstock.com and the Chairman of the Foundation for Educational Choice, Patrick Byrne. Byrne discusses his relationship with mentor Warren Buffett, terrible public school systems, SEC violations and regulators, and why he was Wall Street’s most hated man just before the 2008 financial crisis. http://www.stansberryradio.com/Porter-Stansberry/Latest-Episodes/Episode/85/1/Warren-Buffett-Regulation-and-Education#
- ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awkGijVKzAQ
- ^ Last week’s soapbox with Overstock CEO and Chairman of the Board Patrick Byrne was the first time we had a speaker fly in to join us! It was such an amazing talk and we’re still talking about it around the offices at ZURB. Patrick was very down-to-earth, spending some time with us before his talk and asking tons of questions about what we do and what exactly are the sketches that litter our office whiteboards. Chatting with Patrick was like talking with a friend over lunch. He shared stories about his mentor and friend, investment guru Warren Buffett. He told us about his three-time brush with cancer and how that shaped how he planned his days. He spoke about how he turned Overstock.com during the Dot Com Bust. And he gave a bit of investment advice, telling us why bankers rake you over the coals during an IPO and how he took Overstock.com to IPO with a successful "Dutch Auction" three years after he took over. http://www.zurb.com/article/918/overstock-ceo-patrick-byrne-from-dot-com-
- ^ "On The Communicators, Patrick Byrne, Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, and Scott Peterson, Executive Director of Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, discussed whether products sold over the Internet should be taxed." http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/InternetSalesT
- ^ "Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne discusses his company's pending lawsuit against Wall Street giant Goldmans Sachs with SALT TV's Chief Correspondent Terry Wood. The suit was recently amended to include allegations of interstate racketeering. Hear what Mr. Byrne says about the patterns of alleged criminal activity uncovered by Overstock's attorneys."
- ^ What happens when you take a doctor of philosophy who's the CEO of an $800 million dollar company- and make him a victim of naked short selling and Wall Street fraud- and put him together with a Wall Street whistle-blower who was on the inside selling the so-called "compliance" software used to hide the evidence of these crimes against humanity? Sit back and hold on because if you thought discussing Wall Street and finance was boring, you're about to have your mind blown wide open.
- ^ "Interview about how our politicians are bought off by corporations."
- ^ Today, we are talking with Patrick Byrne from Overstock.com. I have been reading a little bit about Patrick today, and I got to confess, at first, my impression of Patrick has been is that I think that he's kind of a crazy guy, but as I've been really more in depth about all the things that he's been involved with, I'm impressed. Now, we're going to hear Patrick's side of the story, and hear what Patrick has been up to. So, Patrick, thanks for joining us.
- ^ "What is your question? If you had $100 billion to give away, how would you spend it? What is your counsel? How will this age be remembered? What is your outlook? What should be the big issues of the 2008 presidential elections? What is the world's greatest challenge in the coming decade? What are the greatest issues facing the United States today?"
- ^ "In the past few weeks, several high profile Wall Street firms have been fined by the SEC. One firm was fined for failure to maintain a wall between its research department and its sell-side brokers; another firm was fined for allowing one of its clients to make illegal naked-short sales. Corruptions and scandals are resurfacing again. Is this the tip of an iceberg, or just a series of isolated instances? Joining me on the program this week is Patrick Byrne, he’s Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com, and also the author of the Dark Side of the Looking Glass: The Corruption of Our Capital Markets."
- Marquis Who's Who Online
External links
- [1] Deep Capture, a financial blog by Patrick Byrne
- Overstock.com website
- Interview with Byrne on NPR July 4, 2003
- CNET interview with Byrne March 6, 2006
- "CEO with a Cause" interview on NBC Universal's Ivillage.com June 27, 2007
- "A day in the life of Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne", interview on The Register website, Mar. 10, 2008
- Daily Show Interview with Patrick Byrne on Naked Short Selling (humorous), March 16, 2009
- "NAzerali v. Mitchell," by Bethany McLean, In The Supreme Court of British Columbia, Oct. 19, 2011