Ex-Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne sells stock, doubles down on crypto
Leo Jakobson, 20 September 2019
Overstock.com’s founder Patrick Byrne ended his connection with the online retailer he built into a giant in much the same way as he ended his tenure as its CEO a month ago: bizarrely.
Since 2014, Byrne poured more than $200 million of Overstock.com’s resources into a venture capital arm, Medici Ventures, with the goal of turning the online retailer into a blockchain powerhouse, Forbes estimates.
Ten days before he stepped down on August 22, Byrne had forced his PR team to post a release on the company’s investor relations page reading, “Overstock.com CEO Comments on Deep State, Withholds Further Comment.” It delved vaguely into the Hillary Clinton/Russia investigation, President Donald Trump, and Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as well as a “senior military officer,” and “the Men in Black.” Lurking unmentioned in the background was his affair with a jailed Russian agent.
While he couldn’t reach quite reach those heights this time around, a letter posted on September 18 under a large silhouette of a hand doing the Vulcan split-fingered peace sign from Star Trek announced that he had sold all of his remaining stock in Overstock.com. The proceeds—reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as about $90 million—will be invested in gold, silver, and “two flavors of crypto.”
