Misplaced Pages

Patrick M. Byrne

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Cave Bovum (talk | contribs) at 06:18, 2 October 2006 (restoring prior edits. Please discuss before reverting again, thanks.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 06:18, 2 October 2006 by Cave Bovum (talk | contribs) (restoring prior edits. Please discuss before reverting again, thanks.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Patrick M. Byrne is President and CEO of internet retailer Overstock.com.

Background

Patrick Byrne received a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College (Asian Studies & Philosophy), a master’s degree in philosophy from Cambridge University as a Marshall scholar, and a doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University.

Byrne 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. Currently Byrne is CEO and President of Utah-based internet retailer Overstock.com.


'Jihad' against naked shorting

In 2005, Byrne announced his support for the so-called Market Reform Movement, and its stated goal of ending illegal naked short selling, a form of fraudulent stock price manipulation Byrne claims is afflicting his company's share price as well as that of many others.

Byrne launched his campaign of increasing awareness of naked shorting by hosting a media conference in which he outlined his concerns, describing those responsible as "miscreants."

With that, Byrne commenced what he describes as a "jihad" against naked short selling. Byrne's jihad has grown to include a lawsuit filed against hedge fund Rocker Partners and securities research firm Gradient Analytics.

Media attention

Since Byrne launched Overstock.com in 1999, he and his company have garnered attention from numerous national media outlets. Among them are the Wall Street Journal, ABC News with Peter Jennings, Fortune, CBS Marketwatch, and Business Week, among others, and is a frequent guest on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, and Fox News shows (such as Cavuto and Kudlow & Cramer). In 2002, Byrne was named to Business Week’s list of the 25 most influential people in e-Business: the magazine cited survival strength and vision as qualities that qualified Byrne for the list. In 2003 Ernst & Young awarded Byrne an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in the category of Lifetime Achievement.

More recently, however, he has received critical treatment in the press, largely because of his allegations conerning an alleged naked short-selling conspiracy. He is also criticized for his often sharp attacks on stock research analysts critical of his company, his lawsuit, and his sometimes personal attacks on individual members of the press.

Byrne has asserted that he is under attacks from "dishonest" members of the press, and has singled out journalists at Marketwatch.com, Dow Jones News Service and the New York Post. He has alleged that one reporter is "crooked," and that another receives payments from hedge funds via an ATM.

Byrne's allegations, which his critics deride as bizarre and patently false, have drawn sharp criticism from media outlets as diverse as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune and the New York Post.

In a column in the New York Times in March 2006, journalist Joseph Nocera condemned Byrne's attacks on analysts and the press as a "campaign of menace."

Education lobbying

Byrne is head of an education lobbying organization called First Class Education. The organization's primary goal is what they call the "65% solution", which would require 65% of all education spending to be spent on what is considered "in the classroom education". There is a controversy regarding how this category is defined (such as the inclusion of athletics programs and exclusion of libraries and librarians). The plan has been criticized by the National Education Association and other groups. The NEA cites a study by Standard and Poor's, which indicated "no significant positive correlation between the percentage of funds that districts spend on instruction and the percentage of students who score proficient or higher on state reading and math tests." According to First Class Education, 3 states have implemented their plan so far— Colorado, Missouri, and Oklahoma as of July 2006.

Personal life

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.

External links

Category: