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Why Did Patrick Byrne Sell $3 million in Overstock.com Shares?

Posted on by Caleb Newquist

So Patrick Byrne (via his 100% wholly owned entity High Plains Investments, LLC) sold 140,000 OSTK shares in the past five days and that has a few people talking/wondering aloud about what the hell is going on.

Barry Ritholtz, who is long OSTK (quantitative drivers) despite, “I…think it is a steaming pile of shit, that the CEO is an asshole, and that the entire company is probably corrupt,” is really curious:

Is Byrne in possession of material insider information? Would he be so stupid as to sell the shares? (I doubt anyone could be that dumb).

Perhaps he sees a favorable outcome to the SEC investigation? Maybe he is raising money to pay a fine?

These are all excellent jumping off points (although we disagree with the notion “I doubt anyone could be that dumb”) but let’s explore other possibilities:

A) Segways for the KPMG audit team.

B) Reverse Psychology – he’s done fighting the short selling crowd (or is he?)

C) He’s going to apologize to Sam Antar monetarily (how generous he will be, is another matter entirely).

D) He needs some cash for a Father’s Day gift.

E) Needs to feed the Farmville addiciton.

These are merely some ideas. And there’s always the possibility that PB has gone right out of his mind. Share your own, should you feel inclined.

Long OSTK, Short Byrne [The Big Picture]
Proxy Statement/Schedule 14A [SEC.gov]
Patrick Byrne Pockets $3.1 Million from Dumping Overstock.com Shares [White Collar Fraud]
Patrick Byrne Dumps His Overstocked Overstock Shares [Gary Weiss]

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Vault Accounting 50: #41 – #50 (2011)

Wrapping up our series of posts on the Vault Accounting 50, we roll out the final ten.

And as always, if you’ve got anything newsworthy on these firms, get in touch with us at [email protected]:

41. Marks Paneth & Shron LLP – New York, NY
42. Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP – New York, NY
43. Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP – Garden City, NY
44. Stonefield Josephson, Inc. – Los Angeles, CA
45. Blackman Kallick – Chicago, IL
46. Aronson & Company – Rockville, MD
47. Schneider Downs & Co., Inc. – Pittsburgh, PA
48. Burr Pilger Mayer, Inc. – San Francisco, CA
4 Drury & Company, L.L.C. – Bethesda, MD
50. Frank Rimerman & Co. LLP – Palo Alto, CA


Vault’s buzz with the occasional commentary from us:

Marks Paneth & Shron LLP – “Good advertisements on LIRR”; “Slow advancement” [wonder if the ads were discussed with WeiserMazars?]

Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP – “No red tape”—“nimble enough to act on good ideas and make things happen”; “Too many mergers—a consolidation of small firms”

Margolin, Winer & Evens LLP – “[H]as nearly 200 employees in its offices in New York City and Long Island. The firm was founded in 1946, but the bulk of its growth came in the recent years—headcount almost doubled between 2001 and 2006.”

Stonefield Josephson, Inc. – “Founded in 1975, the California-based firm serves U.S. and international clients from offices in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, East Bay, Silicon Valley and Hong Kong.” [Recently joining team Marcum.]

Blackman Kallick – “Fun, young, energetic”; “Managers get mixed reviews” [And a decent Twitter feed that doesn’t overdue the hashtags, like some firms we know.]

Aronson & Company – “Reznick rival”; “Burns out employees” [Pretty good nonprofit blog.]

Schneider Downs & Co., Inc. – “Quality people (people who used to work there are easy to work with)”; “Unknown”

Burr Pilger Mayer, Inc. – Good size for the area but require tax and audit diversity”; “A copy of Armanino McKenna”

Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Company, L.L.C. – “Hitting the accounting scene in 1975, Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Co. has developed from an accounting firm with just three CPAs to one with three offices in Bethesda, Md.; Tysons Corner, Va.; and Annapolis, Md.”

Frank Rimerman & Co. LLP – “California’s Frank, Rimerman + Co. was founded in 1949 by a pair of Franks: Frank Rimerman and Robert Frank. When Frank Rimerman retired, his son Thomas Rimerman took over as the firm’s managing partner. Tom Rimerman is also known for his trailblazing stint as chairman of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; as head of the AICPA, Rimerman outlined a bold agenda to revamp financial reporting practices, passed a Uniform Accountancy Act, created a non-CPA affiliate membership within the AICPA and established federal financial management reforms.”

Earlier Posts on the Vault Accounting 50:
Vault’s New Accounting 50 Ranking Has Plenty of Surprises
Vault Accounting 50 Rankings: Digging Into The Top 10