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“You, sir, are no Warren Buffett”
Topics: financial bloggingLike most financial bloggers, I am constantly pitched by IR and PR consultants trying to get free exposure for the companies they cover. I wasn’t too surprised to receive an email from Chris Jones, whose LinkedIn page describes him as a consultant for Overstock.com. After all, Overstock now sports a market cap of only $201.07M (per Yahoo!), well within the microcap territory covered here, and CEO Patrick Byrne loves any publicity he can get.
But the pitch was just plain bizarre. Not Sith Lord weird, but strange nonetheless. I’ll reprint it in its entirety:
The “shock” of the financial meltdown has passed, now comes, the “awe,” and with it plenty of questions. Primarily, “What’s next?” Is there another bubble brewing? What happens if millions of Americans begin to default on their credit card debt?
Overstock.com chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne, says we are less than 50% of the way through the mess, he predicted the coming of this current crisis many times before, starting 3 years ago, Watch this montage to see Byrne’s predictions beginning in 2005:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIHw7C73s3EToday Byrne is suggesting one of the following scenarios could occur in the coming years:
*Reagan Recession: A deep retraction reminiscent of the recession under Reagan in the early 80’s.
*The lost decade: A protracted recession similar to the one suffered by Japan in the 90’s.
*Great Depression: A severe economic dip on par with the Great American Depression in the early 30’s.
*Mad Max: Not likely, but still possible, a catastrophic breakdown of society with mass shortages of energy, food, and water.Dr. Patrick Byrne has learned at the knee of Warren Buffett, the greatest investor of all time. As a child Byrne’s parents would allow him skip school so he could spend time and get an education from the “Oracle of Omaha.”
He survived cancer, to go on to get a Bachelor’s in Philosophy and Asian studies from Dartmouth, a Master’s of philosophy from Cambridge, and a Doctorate of philosophy from Stanford. He founded Overstock in 1999, and in 2007 the company generated nearly a billion dollars in revenue.
Byrne is an experienced and pithy commentator, if you’d like to speak with him I’d be happy to arrange it.
Thanks for you time and have a great week.
Chris Jones
Two questions:
1. Does anyone really believe that Patrick Byrne “learned at the knee of Warren Buffet”?
2. Why has Overstock.com hired a “”consultant” to promote Patrick Byrne personally as a market guru? Look at the chart below…hasn’t the Wrath of Byrne already hurt shareholders enough? Seriously, OSTK would shoot up 15-25% if Byrne resigned.
Get trend analysis of OSTK from Ino.com
DISCLOSURE: No position.
UPDATE (11/19): It looks like Chris Jones spammed a lot of bloggers with the same email. Gary Weiss wrote about it over the weekend in his blog. Thanks for the heads up Gary.
Well, looking at his Wikipedia page, his father was former chairman of GEICO and, having just read a biography of Buffett, I know that Buffett knew this guy’s father very well. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that at some point he learned at the knee of Buffett.
However, as far as everything you’re saying, I completely agree.
@Andrew: you are absolutely right – Byrne’s father is well known and respected in the insurance biz. I’m sure Patrick knew Buffet at some point, but look at his behavior and find it impossible to believe that he actually learned from the Sage of Omaha.
Perhaps Byrne was taught at the knee of Warren Buffet but he was too thick headed to actually do any learning there. That could definitely be, he is one arrogant lucky sperm.
You sir, are totally incorrect about my personal and sustaining life force, my hero, Dr. Patrick Michael Byrne! You don’t have the credentials to even mention his name, let alone question his integrity as a man and leader of men. Love is too weak a word to describe the dedication I feel to this man. I have given up EVERYTHING; my work, my home and my family, all for the cause of the good Dr. Patrick Michael Byrne. His devotion to us, the tireless 20 hour a day web surfers who take his fight global ever day and night, is well documented. We are the workers in the trenches, common men who cling to his side and sweat blood to battle the media and the Wall Street elite with passion and unfazed zeal. We work hard to be recognized by him, to be acknowledged, rewarded and hopefully receive a personal email or phone call. His kindness and charity to hopeless causes are the fires that guide our every waking moment. You should be made to retract this blog entry and forced to write an apology for this heresy. You are a heathen scum who is not worth of further time.
lenofus
Here’s the best thing about the comment above: Lenofus appears to be totally serious. He is one of the most singularly obtuse posters on various OSTK forums and is noted for his slavish devotion to Byrne.
Its ironic that OSTK’s battles had the unintended consequence of drawing attention to OSTK’s management, performance and governance. Or lack thereof.
Once people saw what was going down at OSTK, the stock followed straightaway.
Oh, I almost forgot.
Look at the Youtube tape.
Byrne is calling an easy money driven credit crisis in December 2007, six months after the Bear hedge fund collapse and after the brokers had taken billions in charges.
Thats like saying the Japanese posed a threat to US interests…in the spring of 1942.
That sort of vision is simply not seen every day.
Patrick Byrne may be no Warren Buffett. However, he is emulating many of my actions as the criminal CFO of Crazy Eddie.
http://whitecollarfraud.blogspot.com/2008/11/overstockcoms-new-disclosures-today.html
I don’t know what’s so bizarre about the pitch…I freelance produce in three different newsroom in nyc. I got the same email…I ignored it cuz I know Byrne is a nut. But my fellow employees all recieved it. Two scheduled interviews…the third was working on it. Yeah he’s a wackadoo…but the pitch worked.
@bebe: what I found strange is that a CEO was trying to promote himself as a market guru. While some, like Buffet, are regarded by others as gurus, and some have insights due to the trends they see in their businesses, I don’t know of any other CEO that uses corporate consultants to promotes himself or herself personally as a market seer.