Patrick Byrne Has a Sense of Humor

Byrne finds that humor is the best therapy

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, the full-time Wikipedia editor who mismanages his train wreck of a company in his off hours, proved in a press release last night that he has a sense of humor.

Commenting on the countersuit filed against him and his SEC-investigated company by Gradient Analytics, Byrne said, "This lawsuit is an attempt by Gradient to distract attention from their failing business model."

Zac Bissonneette comments on AOL's Bloggingstocks:

The CEO of a company that has a track record of missing its own projections -- and has lost over $240 million to date selling chatchkas over the internet -- has filed a lawsuit against a research firm that correctly forecast the company's problems and is accusing that firm of trying to "distract attention from their failing business model."

That's like Donald Trump telling someone they need a new haircut.

It is certainly hypocrisy, as Zac points out, but personally I think that Byrne is just trying to be funny.

Byrne also is showing his sense of humor by (according to chitchat on some message boards) taking his nauseating house stalker Judd Bagley off the corporate payroll, presumably under legal or SEC pressure (or board insistence--see comments). I'd say it's a bit late to shift to a more discreet method of financing his campaign of menace against critics. The rat, as they say, is out of the bag.

UPDATE: Byrne's sense of humor in overdrive. The meltdown continues. Better lock your front gate. You have to figure, when this guy runs out of despicable, attention-getting stunts, drowning puppies is next.

© 2008 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.