Big Stake in Overstock 5:30: File this under bizarre. Toronto-based insurance company Fairfax Financial Holdings disclosed today that it holds an 11.5% stake in Overstock.com after adding nearly one million shares to its holdings. The head of Fairfax, Prem Watsa, considers himself the Warren Buffett of Canada. But market watchers have been utterly bemused about why the insurer has taken a position in Overstock. Fairfax itself is a massively shorted company, with 3.08 million shares shorted in April, which is about 17% of the outstanding shares. Anything over 10% is generally considered high. Fairfax is under SEC scrutiny as part of a broader probe into the finite reinsurance business. And Fairfax has appeared on the Regulation SHO list of stocks that have had failed trades. Like Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, Mr. Watsa has criticized short sellers. The latest purchases don't look like they're working out too well for Fairfax. Overstock posted a disappointing quarter with widening losses on slowing revenue growth. Then, this week, it revealed it had received a wide-ranging subpoena from the SEC, which Mr. Byrne said he "celebrated." Yesterday, the Internet retailer had to rescind a stock offering. It didn't explain why. That these two companies are aligning themselves is intriguing, though it's hard to understand the full ramifications. Fairfax didn't immediately respond to a call into its offices. (Read more about Overstock.) --Jesse Eisinger They filed a form 3 for the first million shares. Not so farfetched if Buffett and Jack Byrne are behind it.
You should write for the X-Files. Oh yeah, that was cancelled. Just like this thread should be... Too bad none of these 100+ pages of posts by you did anything to prop up the stock price.
Day ain't over yet...... Nobody is trying to prop anyting up. We are trying to do the right thing......... If you can't understand that, go to the joke thread. I've been told to read the last line carefully. Wonder what "entice" means? This guy was profiled on the web as "hero", and his edge appears to be, if this article has any wind in it's sails, as paying journalists. What will you all think if it appears that the August 17 rant by Patrick is true? May 12, 2006 NY Sun Overstock.com May Seek $1 Billion From Rocker Partners By DAN DORFMAN May 12, 2006 When 60-year-old David Rocker, one of the city's leading short sellers, retires in January 2007 from the hedge fund Rocker Partners, which he founded in 1985, he might conceivably do so with considerably less money than he thought if one of his corporate adversaries has its way. Last August, that adversary, online retailerOverstock.com, sued Rocker Partners for unspecified damages, which, the New York Sun has been told, could now run in excess of $1 billion. In its suit, Overstock.com- which disclosed on Tuesday that it is the subject of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission - charged that Rocker Partners, which shorted its stock (a bet its price would fall), had conspired with Gradient Analytics, an independent research outfit based in Scottsdale, Ariz., to denigrate its business for a profit. Gradient, which was also sued, "knowingly served as a shill for Rocker Partners," Overstock.com said in its suit. (Rocker Partners recently changed its name to Copper River Partners to reflect Mr. Rocker's planned departure from the firm.) In a brief interview, Wes Christian, a principal of Houston, Tex.-based Christian, Smith & Jewell, one of the law firms representingOverstock.com, said the amount that would be sought from the defendants could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not in excess of $1 billion. "We're still commencing discovery to determine the full damages," he said. On what basis does Overstock.com come up with such an obviously astronomical price tag? Among other things, Mr. Christian argued, the defendants harmed Overstock.com's relationships with its vendors and creditors, hurt its ability to grow, and impeded its ability to merge with or acquire other companies. Likewise, he said, they indirectly affected the stock price, "causing a counterfeit supply of stock to come into the market." He went on to say, "This is the biggest bank robbery you have ever seen, and it involves Wall Street." Indeed, Wall Street has soured on the company's shares, which have dived more than 50% from a 52-week high of $48.65 to a current price of $23.27. Both Rocker Partners, which manages assets of $1.2 billion, and Gradient have denied any wrongdoing and Mr. Rocker declined to respond to calls seeking comment. In March, a California judge denied a motion to throw out the suit, but that decision is being appealed. Mr. Christian claimed he had written evidence that the two defendants had conspired to deliver false and misleading information aboutOverstock.com. He also said he knew that each is the subject of a formal SEC investigation. Asked about talk in Texas hedge fund circles that Overstock.com had hired detectives to look into Rocker Partners and Gradient, Mr. Christian said, "I'm not going to comment on that," but he noted that "I have a lot of information about the defendants." An attorney for Rocker Partners, Gavin Rooney, declined comment when asked about a formal SEC probe and a spokeswoman for Gradient, Karen Hinton, said, "We do not comment on SEC investigations, and we really don't want anything written about us." The SEC, as is usually the case, declined comment, but one regulatory source confirmed the investigations and also said that Mr. Rocker was under intense SEC scrutiny. Meanwhile, Overstock.com is also facing regulatory headaches of its own, having announced that it had received a wide-ranging subpoena from the SEC, requesting documents related to its accounting policies, communications with analysts, and trading in the company's stock. In February, Overstock.com said it would restate results for more than three years as a result of accounting errors it had made in recording freight costs beginning in 2002. In its investigation into the Overstock.com matter, the SEC subpoenaed journalists from several news organizations, including Dow Jones and CNBC. It later withdrew its request but reserved the right to question the journalists. Some rival hedge funds complain that some journalists have been too much of a boon to Mr. Rocker by repeatedly doing negative reports on companies in which he was short. As one put it, there's nothing wrong with a short seller soliciting a reporter to do an unfavorable story on one of his short sales - which happens all the time - but it's way overdone when it becomes 10 to 20 of his short sales because that practice eliminates what's supposed to be a level playing field. Several hedge fund managers, including a former associate of Mr. Rocker's, tell me that his uncanny ability to entice a select number of journalists to do negative stories on his short sales time and again is a key reason for his success.
OSTK CEO is a complete whack job - I would not be shocked to find out flytiger is him. Wasting time posting on ET when you should be running your company. Freak.
wow... another genius late to the party that has no idea what this whole dynamic is about. i am very serious when i say that it amazes me how stupid some posters on here truly are. we covered the "flytiger is PB" many post ago, please read the thread so you dont look like a moron.
Rb is 100% right. The difference between me and PB is, if I had his money, you'd never see my fat ass again. He is different. But not the way you guys think. Stuff is coming now fast and furious. I've said to people for some two years now, when you see this unravel, regardless of how close you are, you will be shocked. This week was unbelieveable. I wish we were sitting in a bar someplace just bullshitting off the record. I saw things this week t..... Let's just say, that some of the people you see on TV should get emmys for the way they just go on, pretend everything is alright, and even defend themselves. I go way back watching Dorfman, and I don't think much of him. But I understand that article is nuts on. When I'm told things like that, I spend extra time pouring over ever word. What that article is is a shot over the bow for the coming court case. It appears PB's side is saying, "gotcha". One of your guys flipped. What's great is , here is a battle for assets. It's the end of the quarter, mgr A beats you by a large margin. You know why, but you lose assets, and he gains. You guys are all competitive. How would you feel, AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO.? I just reread Dorfman, and I can tell you one thing I remember. A friend, someone if I mentioned you might know, called last summer and said, "Byrne has hired the best PI firm in the country". I asked how he knew, and he said, "they just called me". I've heard some of the stuff they've uncovered, and it's remarkable. This is going to be a hell of a book.
BTW - for any of you who don't know that ratboy and flytiger are the same person, WAKE UP! And, the odds of them being the OSTK CEO are pretty high. Freaks.
Here's an interview I, uh, Imean RatBoy, uh, I mean Patrick did. Cramer a shill? Bigger than Enron? I'm tellin' ya', the excrement is about to hit the wind oscillator. http://www.kcpw.org/article/638 Read it and weep, Herb, you pr*()K
i must confess that is the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me. i am flattered that you think i am either of these two individuals. thank you