Reflections on Overstock

I have been asked elsewhere on this site why I “abandoned” Overstock and what do I think of its prospects now? I recently replied in a lengthy comment. I think it best if I elevate my answer to a full post, here, now that I am free to do so, and be open with my understanding of the firm’s future.

Leaving Overstock

As far as “abandoning” Overstock, talk to the board. Yes, I had come forward a month earlier about this federal stuff, but I had said what I thought I needed too, and was prepared to ride things out. It was not out of the question that the statements I had made did not hurt sales: in fact, early indications were that traffic picked up (though conversion had not). I gave the board the option of telling me they wanted me to leave: they did not.

However, there was a weird dynamic at work all summer. For 20 years, I was the New England guy come to Utah, the outsider to my own company. Of the 17 years OSTK has been public, for at least 14 of them there has been a relationship between the Board of Directors and some component of the executive team that did not feel appropriate. It was never between the whole board and the whole executive team. It was between board members who had never been executives themselves (and seemed to view this as their opportunity to be “shadow executives”), and executives who fought for things to be “reporting to” them without ever actually being responsible for running anything, or coming up with ideas themselves, or moving the ball forward in any way. In other words, “staff”.

Why did I put up with it? All along I was thinking that I should not be a tyrant, that my goal was to build something that would outlive me for the day I left (and given that I had numerous health problems for a decade, this seemed like the right plan). The reader could have no idea of the political BS that got in the way of running the place, and the number of coups I have had to fight periodically, as a result of letting this persist.

This past summer, executives close to me were warning me of something odd brewing. For one thing, evidently there were hedge funds lobbying the board along the lines of, “With this huge short position, if Patrick only retires, the stock will pop to $50.” As I wrote earlier, it seemed beneath me to lobby against them, to point out (again) all the ways it is dumb to try to manage a firm by listening to things like that. With one exception the board seemed strangely impassive. But I dismissed the warnings as paranoia.

Also all summer, my plan was to sell about 2%-4% of my holdings into the volume in mid-September, and then 10b5-1 the rest over 3-4 years.

But then this D&O insurance thing (which I have explained elsewhere) came along and surprised me. It seemed decisive in my eyes. I thought, “Well, that was an anticlimactic way for 20 years to end,” but being told it was “impossible” to get D&O insurance with me at the firm made it seem like there was nothing left to fight about anymore. So I immediately gave my resignation, announced it internally, made all the preparations.

A couple-few days later, 48 hours before I left, I started smelling skunk. I began digging to get to the bottom of it. 24 hours before I left, I found out the insurance angle was a lie (one in which, incidentally, Marsh played along by doctoring some information they provided the firm: those are the deep pockets to which the lawyers should look). The CFO told someone that the chairwoman put him up to it (in which case she did not act alone, I am confident), but I think it unlikely he was telling the truth about this. He could have been telling the truth about being instructed to do it, but I don’t know.

Yet it was like the day when you wake up after 17 years in a relationship with a narcissist and say to yourself, “You know what? I’ve got better things to do than play these endless games, unraveling this story from that.” Shrinks says that the right way to handle a narcissistic, the only way, is to withdraw. I had announced my departure internally, everything was all set for me to leave, 6 work-hours before I was to leave I found out that it had been based on a lie. I would have been justified to go back and reverse myself… But as I say, it was 17 years of these games. Never from anyone who was involved with running an operating unit and putting points on the board, always with staff guys who spend time with the board lobbying for more to “report to” them (e.g., various CFOs, but never Rob Hughes, who is a gem). They were riveted on this idea the stock would pop to $50 with me gone. I could have done a Batman grappling hook over the transom and tried to save myself, but after 17 years of it, I let them have what they had gone way out of their way to get. They wanted me gone, so I was gone.

I checked and got confirmation: guidance was stable, and the dividend was green-light. I changed my instructions so that I would be selling all my shares in mid-September.

I told every senior executive with the exception of JJ that I would be selling all my stock: five of them individually, then those five in a room together (witnessed by two more people), then 8-9 together in a lunchroom, and then four more on my way out the door (but there is overlap among all those groups, so you cannot just add them up). I did that so they would know that, while our projections showed Retail would cover Medici’s cash needs in 2020, they had a safety net to the tune of $30-$40 million from me if they needed it. I also instructed all of them not to share any inside information with me from that moment forward.

Incidentally, I am confident that of the N people I told, N – 1 of them (as well as a stack of emails) will confirm that series of events. The -1 is a two-faced suck-butt guy who (I have been told) has recently been going around anxiously to the others saying nervously , “Ah, you don’t remember Patrick getting us in a meeting room and telling us XYZ, do you? Do you?!?!” (In other words, trying to get them to change their memory: I do not know why.) Given that the others are people of character, he has been looking more and more foolish to them, and it sickens them (I’ve been told) that they have to work with a political schmuck like he.

I did not tell JJ directly because I did not know what legal obligations it put him under if he knew that his largest shareholder was about to sell everything. He did ask, however, and my response was, “Do not give me any inside information.” Later, a day or so after I left, he texted me to ask whether I was selling or not (he had a putative buyer for my shares: Marc Cohodes). I refused to answer his texted question. From responding to his question the first time, “Do not give me any inside information,” and from refusing to answer when he contacted me a few days after I left, and from the possibility that at least 1-2 of the other 9 executives would have mentioned it to him, I would assume he had inferred or learned that I was planning on selling my shares, but I cannot be sure of that (and he says otherwise). In any case, I was shocked when I saw him tell the public later that I was not selling: I did not know that it was the prerogative of CEOs to comment on the intentions of shareholders. However, this was also the period where he made a comment about the SEC investigation being “dormant” (which is precisely the kind of slip that, had I made it, would send him through the roof). I think he had nervous jitters, and after years of being in the navigator’s seat calling out errors of mine, discovered how easy it is to make slips when one is in the pilot’s seat. I am confident had no ill intent or desire to mislead. I think it more likely he has learned that one can give a nuanced answer to a journalist, and see it come out in print in black & white with no nuance. Which is why I gave up nuance long ago, and went with sharp, colorful quotes that journalists like too much too distort.

After those days August 17-22, I had 0 information about the Retail business. In late September, around the 23 or 24, after the dramatic events of mid-September and a week after all my shares were sold, I had my only substantive conversations with anyone about the Retail business since I left. JJ and two others. What I gleaned was this: around September 10 when they closed the August books they learned that freight had slipped in a way that may cost $2 million per year; the D&O insurance had come in at a few million dollars more than had been expected (the difficulty had turned out not to be about me, but about blockchain: that is what the CFO had been lying about that, again, whether or not at the direction of any board members is unclear); tariffs had started to bite; but most importantly, starting around Labor Day there had been a weakening in the furniture business across the nation, and OSTK partners were letting the firm know it had suddenly happened across the entire industry, including to our competition (e.g., Wayfair).

That last point matched something I heard from the real estate world as well. I have spoken with a real estate agent in the Bay Area who said that on Labor Day of this year the real estate market downshifted a full gear. In the Bay Area, houses come on the market and normally sell in 5 days, she said. But over the Labor Day weekend the market died. Between one week and the next, the whole real estate market shifted. More on this below.

Anyway, back to the D&O insurance trick. Some board members and executives just acted weirder and weirder around me all summer, and others warned me something was in the works. Then the D&O insurance thing caught me by surprise. I jiu-jitsued four of these coups in the past. The fifth time, I said, “The hell with it, if they want me out this much, I’m out. I cannot wait to see all the great innovations they come up with when it comes time to roll with the punches.”

Around the time I left, in the days and three weeks after, I was told that my invitation to show up at tZERO’s ribbon-cutting on October 10 and speak, had been changed to, “Show up and do not speak, but just be there.” Then it became, “Show up if you want, but don’t speak, and just stand in the back.” Then it became, “We’d prefer you do not show up at all, as the Board is concerned with the optics of being associated with you” (the language of Steve Hopkins, tZERO President, who, if he ever had an idea of his own, would see it die of loneliness). Never was it communicated , “We do not want any association with you, but we want you to stay our largest shareholder.” Just, “We want no association with you, because we are worried about the optics of any association with you, Patrick.” I cannot say that this is why I went ahead and sold all my stock (as I had decided that as soon as I learned about the D&O hoax), but it certainly made it easy to refrain from reconsidering my decision. They wanted “no association” and no “optics” problem of any association with me: OK, I resigned the CEO position, the director position, and after waiting until volume picked up, sold every last share of my stock. Problem solved. Any shareholder perturbed about my actions should take it up with the Board: I gave them exactly what they sent word they wanted.

So that is precisely how things played out.

The Future of OSTK

I wish to emphasize that I really do not have knowledge beyond what I am sharing here, and can comment on the Big Picture only. In fact, I only have this knowledge from late September because when the firm came out with significant news in mid-September, given that after I sold all my shares a week earlier I was more than a little surprised they did not make it clear to the market that those events had been unknown to me when I left in August. So I called, and JJ was good enough to share with me what had happened. So look to the firm for much better and up-to-date information.

One thing I do not think the public is sufficiently attuned is the way in which the housing market drives firms like Overstock and Wayfair. Perhaps 40% (+/- 10%) of Overstock’s business is tied to people moving: as the home industry heats up and cools down, Overstock gets whipsawed around. Thus, if (as the Bay Area real estate agent told me) somewhere around Labor Day the real estate market downshifted, that is going to have more of an impact on Overstock (and Wayfair) than any new AI endeavor.

It was no surprise at all to me to learn last week that Wayfair came out with its numbers and shit the bed. That graph I have put up repeatedly over the last year (“Wayfair’s March to Profitability”) is going to mean a lot more than what people have been giving it credit for:

This graph has not been updated with Wayfair’s recent quarter

I am confident that graph will only look worse as time goes on. Wayfair’s fixed costs (blue line) are roughly 2X what they generate (black line) to pay their fixed costs: nectar$ (= gross profit minus marketing). Wayfair can either goose marketing (which will still leave their nectar$ line flat), or try cutting expenses 50% without seeing a deterioration in nectar$ (fat chance). They have driven down a cul-de-sac. There is no way out for them. Anyone buying their recently-announced debt offering is nuts.

Overstock definitely has a manageable path forward. Never again should they repeat the mistake I made in 2017-2018, and worry about growth: there is no point in fighting for market share against firms like Wayfair in the process of self-immolation (as the graph above demonstrates).

  • Retail – As I left, nectar$ was going to be ≈ $190 million (up over $100 million from 2018). That more than covered expenses for Retail. Also, there were a couple new and excellent AI-driven initiatives kicking in (though I have 0 information on how they are faring): they should increase nectar$ by $20-$40 million in 2020, or (in the face of an economic downturn) hold nectar$ stable. There probably are another $20 million in expense reduction they could achieve through manged-attrition (without layoffs) as well. Thus, Retail should be able to pump out several tens of millions of dollars in 2020.
  • Medici – I expected the Medici cash burn to be < $65 million in 2019, and to drop to roughly half of that in 2020. Some Medici properties such as MLG could start attracting capital on their own (tZERO recently made an announcement regarding a real estate tokenization that is a harbinger of things to come: it is looking like the commercial real estate industry is the first one turning to security tokens ). Beyond that, I am waiting in the wings with $30 – $40 million, if needed (and if the terms are appropriate).

You see as well as I do how everything should fit together. And if things do not quite play out like that, then they change their flight plan and adjust, as we did for 20 years. Jonathan is an able executive. He needs to be careful not to let the staff guys and the board start thinking they are in charge, but he can make this all work.

I should say clearly that I do think the board, as led by Allison, is trying hard to do the right thing for the firm. It is 100% clear there was some mischief regarding Marsh and the D&O insurance, but I think the odds are less than 50% the board had anything to do with that (which means, the CFO acted alone). Between the 90% negative rebate on OSTK this summer, and the dividend, there were billions of dollars at stake, and trying to get to the bottom of everyone’s motivations at his point is like unscrambling an egg. It feels great to be out of that Bad Craziness after two decades of it, of this I am sure. They are trying their best. Under the right circumstances, and given that the stock did not pop to $50, I repeat, I would reinvest $30 million to $40 million.

You truly know everything I know. Best of luck with your investments.

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40 comments
  1. Well done, but what about the sale of Etail, and/or a significant capital infusion ensuring paths to exponential revenue growth within and across the entire Tech Stack organically but with more speed?

    Or are products not fully complete, and regulatory bodies across each product sector continuing to act too slowly representing long term encumbrances impossible to breach?

  2. Well done, but what about the sale of Etail, and/or a significant capital infusion ensuring paths to exponential revenue growth within and across the entire Tech Stack organically but with speed to market?

    Or, are products not fully complete, and regulatory bodies connecting to each product sector when applicable acting too slowly representing long term encumbrances impossible to breach?

    How did the Microsoft’s, Google’s, and Facebook’s of the world “SCALE,” and why can’t Medici?

    1. Enourmous relief. Sleeping like I did not for 20 years. I made one interesting $17 million investment in an energy company, put the rest in gold, silver, RVN, and BTC, and am enjoying life.

      1. I’ll bet some energy company executive are cringing over that comment…. now you will have the people who have eyes in to the international money network looking to see where you moved it….

  3. Additionally, what is this bogus lawsuit concocted by “the shorts,” one must be sure, going to look like in cash outlays at the end of day? For example, I tried convincing the Louisiana Firm with their former AG spearheading it, and partner Mr. Kahn directly, to stand down while focusing his/their attention towards the real criminals that fixed the game with the help of the SEC at the prime brokers, but he would hear nothing of the sort further emphasizing that they were on OSTK’s case for a long time coming.

    I had never heard a Class Action attorney fielding calls feel so passionate about suing a company like OSTK and their executives, but especially you, Patrick. I have been Lead Plaintiff in past assisting attorneys in ways they will always remember knowing the scorecard of deception by certain management teams. He wanted to know how much we lost–unrealized isn’t a loss though, is it–while telling him we were long term investors who believed in the company, and everything its management team was focusing upon.

    This was at the very beginning meaning the first day in when the wires began ringing with these ambulance chasers, and he assured me they already had their “lead plaintiff” knowing I had zero interest in being his, and not disclosing the magnitude of our unrealized pain which isn’t really a loss, now, is it. HA

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shareholder-alert-former-louisiana-attorney-035000973.html

    1. Please don’t contact the leaches. I stopped counting at 23 different firms. Now I see many of them sending out reminders that the deadline for someone to join their lawsuit is coming up. Let them die on the vine. There will be some not very experienced “investors” that bought OSTK for the dividend or they liked PB or some other emotional or not enough DD reason that will listen to some of the lawyers and follow them like dogs but I believe most will never see trial and OSTK will not settle. I hope.

      Yes I know run on sentences… I channel Neal Cassady when I write….

  4. Are you invested in tzero or exposed to tzero in anyways?

    I attended one of your tzero conference in Korea and decided to invest.
    But shocked to find out you sold everything and it seems that you are totally departed from tzero.

    Does MLG own tzero shares or token?
    How come it is the best blockchain project, yet you have zero money invested in it?

    1. I own a piece of MLG. I do not own any tZERO directly.

      The baord sent word that they wanted no association with me at all, that they were concerned about “the optics”. They did not say, “No association with you, but please do not sell your shares.” Just “no association.” That is what they got.

      1. Does MLG own a piece of tZERO in any ways?

        Just knowing you have indirect exposure to tZERO will give a little relief to ico participants who believed your vision.
        or MLG doesn’t have anything to do with tZERO?

          1. I know Medici Ventures owns tZERO and MLG
            but was wondering if MLG owns some part of tZERO,
            just wanted to check if PB is indirectly invested in tZERO.
            Seems like it’s not as he sold all OSTK shares.
            quite frustrating and an ico investor.

            Thanks

      2. Additionally, your family holds the note on The Peace Building that you built. I believe 8 percent–a dear price in today’s market–are the terms? Seems to be your “sweet spot” for ROC for “secured assets”?

        What value do you have the building pegged at in a down real estate market over in Mormon Country?

        Couldn’t Jj re-finance that semi-prime piece of real estate cheaper?/

  5. 1. Does JJ know of the Steve Hopkins problem along with the few other political non-contributors and do you think he’ll do something about them?

    2. Do you plan on discussing the retail sale?

    Thx

  6. I am sure writing all this out is really helping you process. It also gives us a wonderful view in to your psyche. I remember reading somewhere last century about Indian thoughts and periods in our life. It is almost as if you have reached that time when a family man has fulfilled his fatherly duties and begins to expand his “spiritual” side. (I really hate the metaphors we use talk about crap like this). Having said that I will leave you with some thoughts.

    Human beings as organisms perform a stupendous maneuver of perception which, unfortunately, creates a misconception, a false front; they take the influx of sheer energy in the universe at large and turn it into sensory data, which they interpret according to a strict system of interpretation that practitioners call the human form. This magical act of interpreting pure energy gives rise to the misconception, the peculiar conviction of human beings that their interpretation system is all that exists. A tree, as tree is known to human beings, is more interpretation than perception. For human beings to establish the presence of tree, all they need is a cursory glance that tells them hardly anything. The rest is a phenomenon is described as the calling of intent, the intent of tree; that is to say, the interpretation of sensory data pertaining to the specific phenomenon that human beings call tree. The entire world of human beings, just as in this example, is composed of an endless repertoire of interpretations where human senses play a minimal role. In other words, only the visual sense touches the energy influx which comes from the universe at large, and it does so only in a cursory fashion.

    The majority of the perceptual activity of human beings is interpretation, and human beings are the kind of organisms that need only a minimal input of pure perception in order to create their World; or, that they perceive only enough to trigger their interpretation system.

    Using The White House as a metaphor for the site of power of today’s world, the center of all our endeavors, hopes, fears, and so on, as a global conglomerate of human beings-for all practical purposes, the capital of the civilized world. All this isn’t in the realm of the abstract, or even in the realm of our minds, but in the realm of intending, because from the point of view of our sensory input, the White House was a building that in no way had the richness, the scope, the depth of the concept of the White House. From the point of view of the input of sensory data, the White House, like everything else in our world, was cursorily apprehended with our visual senses only; our tactile, olfactory, auditory, and taste senses were not engaged in any way. The interpretation that those senses could make of sensory data in relation to the building where the White House is would have no meaning whatsoever. Where is the White House? It is certainly not in our perception, not even in our thoughts, but in a special realm of intending, where it is nurtured with everything pertinent to it. To create a total universe of intending in such a manner is our magic.

    This is not my explanation but the truth and reality of these understandings punch me in the face everyday…

    Godspeed….

  7. Hi Patrick.Would love to hear your thoughts on this idea.
    I have been advocating over the past year and a half for Overstock/Medici to use the Worldstock domain to create a PRINCIPLED “super website” that combines social media/networking with commerce/trade/finance.

    Imagine a website/app/network where people from all over the world unite behind the principles of truth,freedom,goodwill,integrity,humility,the Non-Aggression Principle,the Golden Rule and voluntarily helping others.A place where we use social media,networking,trade & commerce to support each other and promote these principles we share.(And a homepage that gets this message/mission statement across crystal clear).
    Imagine a focused,inspired user base dedicated to promoting this.

    I am thinking competition for facebook,twitter,amazon,google/youtube,apple,netflix,big banks/brokerages,Mainstream Media and even politicians! lol
    Just taking a little market share from each could turn into something awesome.

    This could simply start out as a social media website/app just to gather together those people in the world who value principles like truth,freedom,peace,the non-aggression principle and voluntarily helping others.Then it could eventually morph into a website/app where these principles are promoted upfront while at the same time being a social media,commerce,trade,digital currency,news,education,entertainment(videos and video games) and communication powerhouse.

    This type of website/network could come to fruition through the meeting and cooperation of many Overstock/ Medici affiliated companies.

    Worldstock is a domain owned by Overstock and I really think that domain name could be used to make the ultimate website as it could imply a double entendre with the 2 meanings being:

    1)World Stock of products/goods/services/financial instruments

    2)A Woodstock type of vibe/event/experience gone Worldwide encouraging people to unite behind the principles of truth,freedom,peace,goodwill,the Non-Aggression principle, the Golden Rule and voluntarily helping others.

    Picture the principled website described above as Worldstock.com , a social media/network/commerce/trade site where you could buy almost any kind of product/service from almost anywhere in the world:furniture,clothes,electronics,stocks,options,security tokens,cryptocurrency,real estate,cars,insurance,mortgages,land titles etc..

    This could also involve Overstock/Medici creating their own Linux based Operating system and/or web browser .Another possibility is selling mini PCs/laptops/tablets/phones with this operating system and/or web browser built in as well as built in plug and play/set it and forget it Ravencoin or other mining as well.

    Imagine Worldstock as the “Great Lake” website/network into which the rivers of Overstock,tZERO,Medici Land Governance,Bitt,Voatz,Minds and others flow.
    Imagine the best website in the world….

    I think liberty lovers worldwide would much rather buy and use products,information and services from like-minded people.I think liberty lovers worldwide would obviously much rather elect like-minded people to office.Overstock/Medici could provide the internet gateway/homebase to make this happen and change the world for the better.

    In my opinion,all political parties are easily co-opted & corrupted.Things won’t change much until citizens unite behind truth/freedom/goodwill/integrity.Most politicians who claim to serve the public are really self servants/crony servants.Therefore,We the People must unite behind basic principles to make positive change.

    The best hope for more freedom in general is for more people to unite behind and promote freedom worldwide.Freedom of speech is obviously essential,but I would hope that there will be a concerted effort to unite folks behind some other basic principles as well.

    “A place where people from all over the world unite behind the principles of truth,freedom,goodwill,integrity,humility,the Non-Aggression principle,the Golden Rule and voluntarily helping others.A place where we use social media,networking,trade & commerce to support each other and promote these principles we share.”

    This is the best idea I can think of to make the world a better place.
    Anyone got a better idea?I’m listening……

    We have a short time on this earth,which reminds me why truth,freedom,kindness,forgiveness,integrity and goodwill are of the highest value.

    Some may say you can’t save the world,but I would say,” Why not try anyway?”
    I’ve got nothing better to do.

  8. My family does not have any notes on the building. That one away ages ago.

    I do only some MLG directly, but I own no T0. I am prohibited from investing in 0STK until about February 20, 2020. If they need money before then, I could invested into T0 directly, legally, that’s relieving them of cash burn.

    I will write about the retail sale. The truth is, I spent the afternoon riding a long long piece. The last section on it needing to be written, frankly, is the stuff about the sale. I will put it up this weekend if I finish. And then I think I am more or less finished talking about the past. And it will be time to drop one more little factoid, and then start a contest with one bitcoin as the prize.

  9. My family does not have any notes on the building. That one away ages ago.

    I do only some MLG directly, but I own no T0. I am prohibited from investing in 0STK until about February 20, 2020. If they need money before then, I could invested into T0 directly, legally, that’s relieving them of cash burn.

    I will write about the retail sale. The truth is, I spent the afternoon riding a long long piece. The last section on it needing cto be written, frankly, is the stuff about the sale. I will put it up this weekend if I finish. And then I think I am more or less finished talking about the past. And it will be time to drop one more little factoid, and then start a contest with one bitcoin as the prize.

    1. Best synopsis about what. OSKT dividend? Bob Barr and Russiagate? NSS? The Bribe? Or the REALLY big one Epstein=> Bob Barr => The Crown => Clinton => Trump => Dershowitz => ABC => Disney =>NBC and a ton of others involved in his pedophilia and murder. There is so much to write about you will have to narrow it down a bit..

  10. Thank you Patrick.
    Can I bother you to discuss the Digital Locate Receipt business? I thought that would be a live operation in 2019 but it doesn’t seem to be on schedule. Obviously you dont have up to date inside Information now.
    Has the SEC put up many roadblocks for you as T0 developed the product? If so, what?
    How do you see that business rolling out? When was your expectation for DLR to be live prior to leaving?
    Each quarter in the con call, I`m like a kid on Christmas eve waiting for someone to say DLR product went live this quarter and we have taken the first 10% of GS stock loan market share.
    What can you share with us about DLR?
    Thanks

  11. Thanks Patrick we were changing the world and building cold fusion together…You sold out in the high teens and I’m holding the bag now at 9.70…. Thanks for helping me lose my money and change nothing…. I hope my former humble servant is enjoying all the money…..

    1. You folks wanted me out: you got me out. You wanted me as just a shareholder, you got me as just a shareholder. Shareholders don’t tell other shareholders when they can buy and sell. Beyond that, though, you made sure to communicate that you were concerned about the “optics” of any link to me, and wanted “no association” with me ( not, “no association but for remaining our largest shareholder“, just “no association“). You got it.

  12. PB, a lil symbolism noticed on the day you left; not sure if you were ever a fan of the band Rush (the right age group) but on that day, the stock closed at 2112… the lyrics.. (if you don’t know, smoke some weed , put on head phones and journey thru the first side/half of the 2112 album)…

    “and the meek shall inherit the earth….
    […]
    I stand atop a spiral stair
    An oracle confronts me there
    He leads me on light years away
    Through astral nights, galactic days
    I see the works of gifted hands
    That grace this strange and wondrous land
    I see the hand of man arise
    With hungry mind and open eyes

    They left our planets long ago
    The elder race still learn and grow
    Their power grows with purpose strong
    To claim the home where they belong
    Home to tear the Temples down…
    Home to change!”

  13. “You folks” I’m tired of this reply the “folks” you talk about are the board members you put in place. Mom and pop investors like me cant run for the OSTK board and I dont run in the circles of the OSTK board members where I could get nominated. The hedge fund guy who turned on you use to have a picture of you and him having a beer and were supposedly buddies. I dont remember you ever having beer with me. That response dose not address “me ” a mom and pop shareholder who put there trust in “you”… Also while we are having this candid conversation two things I always wondered about. In regards to Warren Buffet your rabbi… 1) Why is it that he owns a large maker of furniture but never did any deals with OSTK and never bought retail if the value was so good? 2) Why is it that rabbi has never come out and said anything in regards to this deep state stuff . Giving you some backing with a simple comment like PB is a good guy and I believe him. During the finical crisis he was on TV everyday claiming he was trying to bring confidence back to the finical systems and protect the country. The stuff you talk about is just as important if not more and no comment…

    1. berkstock3, is that you??

      https://www.investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=3532&mn=44297&pt=msg&mid=19781172

      I have been getting heckled by a Fidelity liaison connecting to our muni bond manager who is pressuring us to sell a 55 percent weighted equity stake in berkshire, 12 percent weighted in cash portfolio because he says Mr. Buffett may be failing in health. When asked why, he said Warren Buffett has been out of the news for awhile now, and as often as he was appearing in the media to see him go dark like this is alarming.

      We understand his motives seeking more dollars allocated to that bond manager’s fund–not going to happen in a declining interest rate market–but then I realized it was true that Mr. Buffett has been mia in his favorite stomping ground, cnbc, unless I have been missing something.

      Patrick, when was the last time your broke Matzoh Bread with your Rabbi, and how did he appear health wise? Any more recent updates on his health status you may know, would be appreciated.

    2. Regarding Buffet,here is an excerpt from a Sara Carter article from July:

      “Familiar with the possible backlash he will face, he made the decision to go public after speaking to his mentor and longtime friend billionaire Warren Buffet, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Buffet, whom Byrne describes as his ‘Rabbi,’ sent SaraACarter.com a statement Tuesday night confirming his meeting with Byrne at his home in Omaha, Nebraska several weeks ago.

      “I’ve known Patrick and his family for more than 40 years,” Buffet said in an email to this reporter. “His father, Jack Byrne, saved GEICO in 1976 and I met his three boys when they were teenagers. Both Mark, the middle son, and Patrick, the youngest, worked for Berkshire Hathaway. Patrick helped the company without pay in solving a difficult business problem. Patrick is very intelligent and patriotic. He comes by Omaha periodically to see me. At the most recent visit – a few weeks ago – though I know nothing about the subject he was describing, I told him to follow his conscience.”

      https://saraacarter.com/russia-probe-twist-a-billion-dollar-ceo-a-convicted-russian-agent-and-the-fbi/

      1. That’s something that I hadn’t seen before. Interesting.

        Patrick, did Mr. Buffett tell you when you sat with him in June/July, that I had written to him directly earlier in May, concerned about your personal well being, especially the undue stress I felt you were under?

        Your Humble Servant, ValueCarl

  14. Deepest thanks.
    I’ve been a fan over a decade, just got into buying shares this year. Opps. I’m staying long with trust in the tech stack, and I’m tiny anyway, so little risked. Though, I’m somewhat less confident after reading article plus comments.
    Much more important than the daily score of the ticker, you present a rare example of a principled man. In the mirky waters of our times, this is a tremendous accoplishment. Are you and elon buddies yet? You two are the reason I’m on twitter and in the stock market. They may need your voice when drafting a colonial constitution in space.
    Hope you’re getting your yoga in. Glad to hear sound sleep has found you. Chalk me up as one american you helped make greatful again.
    Keep up the good fight!

    1. Do good werk and keep the dream alive for all of us shareholders. Give us faith in the remaining members of team overstock, if you’re implying you’re one of them.

  15. Patrick, if you want to learn how to do some hand tool woodworking contact me. It is a very satisfying way to spend some time

  16. “For 20 years, I was the New England guy come to Utah, the outsider to my own company.”

    Hi Patrick. I’m curious what prompted you to build Overstock in Utah in the first place, and if you felt not being a “native” was an impediment.

  17. Hello Patrick. Ousmane, do you remember? First in Switzerland at a train station. Last in Midvale.
    I love reading you. And as usual, every time I do, I learn a lot.
    Come to Guinea, West Africa.
    God bless you

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