Patrick Byrne “screws up” Overstock.com and the board of directors rewards him
In the January 2nd press release announcing Jason Lindsey’s departure from Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK), Patrick Byrne said the following:
“Jason co-founded the company and helped build it before retiring the first time. When I screwed it up a couple years ago he came out of retirement and has played a decisive role getting it back on track,’” said Overstock chairman and chief executive officer Patrick Byrne.”
It’s interesting that Patrick admits to “screwing it up.” It’s even more interesting that when he apparently “screwed up” Overstock.com, the board of directors rewarded him with 25,000 shares of company stock.
According to Overstock’s 8-K filed on April 25, 2006:
On April 25, 2006 the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors of Overstock.com, Inc. (the “Company”) approved additional grants under the Company’s Performance Share Plan, including grants of 25,000 performance shares to each of Patrick Byrne, who, effective April 25, 2006, was appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and to Jason Lindsey, who, effective April 25, 2006, was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer of the Company. Each of Dr. Byrne and Mr. Lindsey is also a member of the Board of Directors. The terms of the grants are substantially identical to those of the grants to other officers of the Company described in the Company’s Report on Form 8-K/A filed January 31, 2006.
The closing price of the stock on April 25, 2006 was $27.40, making this grant to Patrick Byrne worth about $685,000. Not a bad payday for “screwing up” the company. I wonder what his grant would have been if he had actually done well?
Related Posts
- Patrick Byrne: Still too busy to run that dog of a company, Overstock.com
- Overstock.com: Single digits right around the corner?
- Patrick Byrne lies to New York Times about his message board postings
- Sarbanes-Oxley and informants (and the Overstock.com and Patrick Byrne connection)
- Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com is a crook, according to himself
It is a sad commentary, but most executive management teams and the their board are so closely aligned that short of a criminal conviction, they will continue to “support” each other.
Best Wishes,
D4L