Patrick M. Byrne (born 1962, Fort Wayne, Indiana) is an American entrepreneur, e-commerce pioneer and CEO of Overstock.com. In 1999, Byrne launched Overstock, having led two smaller companies, including those owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
In 2002, Byrne took public Overstock.com. Since its initial public offering, Overstock.com has increased revenue by nearly $ 1.8 billion, while achieving profitability in 2009.
In 2005, Byrne became famous for his campaign against illegal bare selling. Byrne and securities regulators maintain illegal short shorting has been used in violation of securities laws to distort stock prices of public companies. Under his direction, Overstock.com filed two lawsuits accusing improper conduct by Wall Street companies, a hedge fund, and an independent research firm. In any case the defendant has settled with Overstock out of court.
More recently, Byrne has advocated for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. In January 2014, Overstock.com became the first major online retailer to receive bitcoin.
Byrne took unlimited leave from Overstock.com in April 2016 due to complications of Hepatitis C. Byrne returned in July 2016 as CEO after the recovery of Hepatitis C.
Video Patrick M. Byrne
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Patrick Byrne is the son of John J. Byrne, former chairman of GEICO Berkshire Hathaway and White Mountains Insurance Group. 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 Bachelor of Marshall, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Stanford University.
Byrne was a lecturer at Stanford University from 1989 to 1991 and manager of Blackhawk Investment Co. and Elissar, Inc. He served as chairman, president and CEO of Centricut, LLC, an industry torch manufacturer, then holding the same three positions at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company that produces police, firefighters and military uniforms.
Byrne has a black belt in tae kwon do, and once pursued a career in professional boxing. He is a cancer survivor, and has been riding bikes across the country to raise awareness and money for cancer research at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Byrne also supports the application of school vouchers and other educational reforms. Byrne was the biggest donor to political causes in Utah during 2003-2006, while his father was the third largest.
Maps Patrick M. Byrne
Overstock.com
In 1999, Byrne was approached by the founder of D2-Discount Direct with a request for operating capital. The company has generated slightly more than $ 500,000 in revenues the previous year by liquidating the excess inventory online. Byrne found the idea of ​​an attractive online closing, and invested $ 7 million for a 60 percent equity stake in the company in the spring of 1999. In September of the same year he took over as CEO, and the following month the company changed its name to Overstock.com.
Byrne initiated the Dutch IPO auction from Overstock.com in 2002. The company was one of the first companies to go public under a system developed by WR Hambrecht Co. to maintain a larger share of capital in the company than to go to the underwriter banks used in the offer conventional general. Byrne has said that competing banks react to this, trying to block the success of the offer through negative reports and by shortening the company's stock. When Google later in 2004 became public through the Dutch IPO auction, Byrne commented that Wall Street companies also pushed the negative story, but did not prevent it from succeeding. Four years after OpenIPO, one of Hambrecht's officials, now former co-CEO of Clay Corbus was added to Overstock's board of directors.
Campaign against naked shorts and analysts
In a conference call with analysts in August 2005, Byrne said that "there have been plans since we were in our teens to destroy our stock, pushing it to $ 6- $ 10... and even plan how the company will get hit." He said that the conspirators were part of the "Miscreants Ball," led by "Sith Lord," whom he denied identification but said "he was one of the major criminals since the 1980s." Byrne said the conspiracy included hedge funds, journalists, investigators, court lawyers, the SEC, and Eliot Spitzer. The lucky writer Bethany McLean says that Byrne has become "a hero to those who believe short sellers are the main black box operators of Wall Street, predators who destroy companies through satire, oppression, political connections - and sometimes through known illegal practices" as bare shorting. ' "Byrne is financed and most write a full-page ad in the Washington Post that says" Naked short-selling... literally steals money from widows, pensioners, and other small investors. "In a letter to the Wall Street Journal in April 2006, Byrne argues that "blackguards have practiced 'failure to deliver'" securities, are "destroying business and (possibly) destabilizing our capital markets." Since 2005, Overstock has filed two lawsuits relating to things under Byrne's direction. After his article appeared in 2005, McLean was attacked by Byrne eagerly so he stopped covering it.
In a first lawsuit filed in 2005, Overstock.com filed a lawsuit against Rocker Partners hedge fund and equity research firm Gradient Analytics (formerly Camelback Research Alliance), said they were illegally colluding in short-selling companies while paying for negative reports to drive down prices stock. The defendant (ie Gradient Analytics et al.) Move to have his case canceled, but the California court ruled in August 2006 that the lawsuit should be allowed to continue. Gradient filed a counter-complaint against Byrne for defamation. A portion of the lawsuit was settled out of court on October 13, 2008, when Overstock.com and Gradient dropped claims against each other after Gradient retracted allegations that Overstock's reporting method was not in accordance with the rules laid down by the FASB, stating that they believed Overstock.com fulfilled standard of GAAP, and that three independent directors, and apologize. In December 2009, a lawsuit against Rocker, whose name had been changed to Copper River Partners, was settled by Copper River paying $ 5 million, a payment which Byrne said he received on December 9, 2009.
Overstock.com filed a second lawsuit in 2007 against a number of major investment banks directly linked to alleged illegal bargains. All parties have agreed with Overstock except for Merrill Lynch.
Byrne's campaign against bare selling and others he thinks has targeted him and his company has attracted controversy, although after the crisis in the North American market in 2008, Byrne received a positive press. The Salt Lake Tribune article reported that "These days, when people talk about Byrne, the word 'justification' comes up a lot."
Libel lawsuit
In October 2011, Vancouver businessman Altaf Nazerali sued Byrne for defamation and libel in the British Columbia Supreme Court for an article published on "Deep Capture" by Byrne. The articles describe Nazerali as involved with "Osama Bin Laden's favorite financier," and that he works with criminal syndicates including Colombian drug cartels, Russian mafia, and various "terrorist groups of jihad" including the Al-Qaeda Golden Chain. Deep Capture also accused Nazerali of "sending weapons to war zones in Africa and to mujahidin in Afghanistan," masterminding "petty pumps" and dump fraud... [and] bust-out, financial spiral of death and bare selling, "and doing dirty work for "Pakistani ISI assets" that "works for the Iranian regime. "
In May 2016, the Court found that allegations in the fake Deep Capture and Nazerali articles received $ 1.2 million in compensation, including $ 500,000 in damaged damages, $ 250,000 in punitive damages and $ 55,000 in special damages. Byrne is permanently barred from issuing these allegations. The court found that Byrne, his employees Mark Mitchell, and Deep Capture "were involved in a calculated and cruel campaign to inflict as much damage as possible on Mr. Nazerali's reputation they could achieve." The 102-page decision said, "It is clear to the evidence that their intention is to take revenge where the truth about Mr. Nazerali himself has no consequence."
In December 2016, after a hearing before the Supreme Court of British Columbia, Nazerali was awarded a special fee by the Court requiring Byrne, and Deep Capture to pay Nazerali's fees and legal liquefies. The judgment, in the granting of special fees, specifically mentions: "The Defenders have been indifferent to the plaintiffs of their single determination to cause damage to him."
Byrne appealed in June 2016. In November 2016, Byrne approved the Court of Appeal order requiring him to post about $ 1.3 million security as a condition to hear his appeal. In February 2017, Byrne approved the Court of Appeal order which required him to add a special security fee for a total of approximately $ 1.5 million. He was given until 28 February 2017 to post security to the Court.
In January 2018, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ("BCAA") sitting in a panel of three senior judges heard the appeal for two days. On March 19, 2018, the BCAA, by a unanimous decision, upheld partly by reducing the number of deteriorated damages provided to the Nazerali from $ 500,000 to $ 200,000, bringing the total compensation to $ 905,000, plus special fees, and interest. Given that the court judge had awarded Nazreali $ 400,000, the appellate court declared in its verdict, "There is no doubt that Mr. Nazerali is entitled to a reward for the worsening damage." The BCAA takes a view, citing other cases, that the amount awarded for damages is exacerbated should be less than that for general damage, and therefore reduce the amount given for the worsening damage.
Media awards and attention
In 2011 Byrne was appointed National Entrepreneur of the Year in the Retail and Consumer Products category by Ernst & amp; Young.
Many national media have covered Byrne's campaign against short shorts. Among them are the Wall Street Journal, ABC News with Peter Jennings, Fortune , CBS Marketwatch, and BusinessWeek , among others. He also appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNBC and Fox News shows like Your World with Neil Cavuto . In 2002, Byrne was named BusinessWeek list of the 25 most influential people in e-Business in 2002: the magazine mentions the strength and vision of survival as a quality that qualifies Byrne for the list. and Ernst & amp; Young was awarded Byrne the "2002 Milestone Award Winner Utah Region." Also in 2003 Overstock came no.1 at the Utah100 MountainWest Capital Network (MWCN) award for the fastest growing company in Utah. The Fastest Growth Category is based on an increase in percentage revenues in the preceding five years. Byrne also won the Best of State Utah Award for the first time for Community Development in 2003.
Education policy
In 2005, Byrne provided financial support to form an Education Class advocacy group, whose goal was to change state laws to require schools to spend at least 65 percent of their operating budgets for classroom expenditure. Standard advocates argue that it will free money to increase teacher salaries without requiring tax increases. Critics say that many services considered "non-classes" are required for education, including librarians, school nurses, counselors, food service workers and school bus drivers.
Byrne also served as co-chair (along with Rose Friedman) from EdChoice. Nonprofit organizations founded by Milton and Rose Friedman and promoting school vouchers and other forms of school choice.
Byrne and his family donated most of the funds to support House Bill 148 in Utah, a law that would allow the state to provide funding vouchers for students who decide to leave public schools for private schools. In January 2008, it was reported that Byrne and his parents contributed about $ 4 million to a pro-voucher campaign, or three-quarters of his $ 5.4 million funding. Voucher opponents, funded mostly by union teachers, spend $ 4 million; about $ 3 million comes from the National Education Association. When the bill was defeated in a statewide referendum (62% opposed to vs. 38% support), Salt Lake Tribune reported that Byrne "called Utahns' failed 'statewide statements' referendum." He said, "They do not care enough about their children, they are very concerned about this system, this bureaucracy, but they do not care enough about their children to think outside the box."
Byrne criticized Utah's Jon Huntsman for not supporting the coupon campaign enough. According to Byrne, Huntsman before he was elected declared that he "would become governor of the voucher," and Byrne had donated $ 75,000 to Huntsman's campaign to the governor in 2004. However, for the disappointment of Byrne, when Huntsman was elected, he disappeared. of the debate, and Byrne told the Associated Press that he would now finance anyone who could defeat Huntsman at the polls, "even a communist".
References
External links
- Deep Capture
- Overstock.com website
- Interview with Byrne on NPR July 4, 2003
- Appearance in C-SPAN
- CNET Interview with Byrne March 6, 2006
- "CEO with a Cause" interview at NBC Universal's Ivillage.com June 27, 2007
- "One day in Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne's life", interview on The Register site, March 10, 2008
- Daily Interview with Patrick Byrne on Bestselling Selling Sales (funny), March 16, 2009
- "NAzerali v. Mitchell," by Bethany McLean, In the Supreme Court of British Columbia, October 19, 2011
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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