In a bizarre announcement for (albeit possibly not for this company) Overstock.com (OSTK) CEO uses strange quotations to explain his decision to take medical leave of absence due to Hepatitis .
On a recent conference call, Byrne stated:
And, that’s time for them to put on their big boy pants. I don’t regret a minute of it. They drew first blood, they were in the wrong. Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock since 2008 knows that these guys were in the wrong, I was correct. There was massive collaboration, to the point of insider trading. There was stock manipulation going on.
The SEC was asleep at the switch, the financial press was too close to the sources. All of the things I said in 2005, 2006, 2007, turned out to be true. So, I don’t regret this. In the process, we’ve also learned an immense amount about the plumbing of Wall Street, that, we think is working quite to our advantage in terms of our efforts with the Blockchain. Since probably the last time I spoke with you, or since two years ago, we were first taking
bitcoin and people were saying: why are you taking bitcoin and stuff? Because we knew that this technology, the Blockchain, was going to change the world.
We wanted experience working with it. We have that. I think that you combine that with what we learned about Wall Street in the course of my Mitzvah, and we’ve got a real tiger by the tail.
Below is the press release and an interview with Byrne.
SALT LAKE CITY, April 11, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) today announced its founder and CEO, Patrick M. Byrne, will take a personal leave of absence for medical reasons. It is unknown if he will return to work. Byrne recommended to the board of directors that the Acting CEO be Mitch Edwards, veteran internet and tech executive behind such firms as BitTorrent and Skullcandy, and most recently, general counsel of Overstock.com.
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A photo accompanying this announcement is available athttp://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e8f06cc2-c3d5-43a9-a2b9-d4e2ec5932da
“Dear Owners,
‘I myself never surrendered. But they got my horse, and it surrendered.’
– Chief Dan George in Outlaw Josey Wales
I must take an indefinite medical leave of absence. The proximate cause is that for over a year I have been gutting it out through a Stage IV diagnosis of Hepatitis C, contracted (to save awkward questions) in 1984 in Xinjiang when a barefoot doctor sewed up a head wound under less-than-ideal conditions. I have finished treatment and think I have it beat but only time will tell.
Your firm is doing and will do well: I believe that in 2016 we will make$40 million GAAP Net Income (pre-tax) excluding net effect of blockchain efforts and the risk of declared recession.
I have recommended Mitch Edwards as Acting CEO. Mitch is an outstanding full-spectrum entrepreneur who has serving as our general counsel for six months and has learned our business, and understands our t0 efforts to revolutionize the capital markets.
I am intensely proud of my nearly 2,000 colleagues for having built a consistently profitable $2 billion e-tailer (on a fraction of the capital afforded our competitors).
Selah,
Patrick M. Byrne”
