Introduction
Patrick M. Byrne (born 1962) is am American business executive and entrepreneur. He is the former CEO of e-commerce company, Overstock.com. He resigned from the position on 22 August 2019.
Early life and education
Byrne was born in 1962, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Hi father, John J. Byrne (1931 - 2013,) was a longtime insurance industry executive who was CEO of GEICO, White Mountains Insurance Group and Fireman's Fund. His father also served as chairman of Overstock.com.
Byrne attended Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese (Asian studies) & Philosophy, in 1985. He then went to the University of Cambridge in England, graduating in 1989 with a Master's degree in Philosophy.
Later, in 1996, he received a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from Stanford University, Stanford, California. His areas of interest were “focus on mathematical logic,” “moral philosophy,” and economics.
Byrne has a black belt in tae kwon do, and once pursued a career in professional boxing.
When Byrne was 13, he met Warren Buffett through his father. Buffet offered business advice to him in the form of a baseball analogy. “There was no one calling balls and strikes," Byrne recounted in a February 7, 2000 interview with Fortune, "and I could take as many pitches as I wanted." Buffett's advice followed: "Every year or two, the perfect pitch comes along and you swing from the heels."
Career
In the years 1989-1991, Byrne was a teaching fellow at Stanford University, during the time, he was the manager of Blackhawk Investment Co. and Elissar, Inc.
From 1994 to 1999, he was the chairman, president and CEO of New Hampshire-based Centricut, LLC, a manufacturer of industrial torches. In the years 1997-1999, he was also the CEO and President as Ohio-based Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company that manufactures uniforms for police, firefighter, and military.
In 1999, when Byrne was 36, Robert V. Brazell, a businessman and entrepreneur, approached Byrne seeking capital investment for “D2: Discounts Direct,” an online discount store he had founded in May 1997.
Byrne was impressed by the idea and invested $7 million for a 60 percent equity stake in the company. They same year, in September, Byrne took over as the CEO of the company and renamed it to overstock.com
Following the success of overstock.com, CNN Money, in 2000, called him the The Renaissance Man of E-Commerce.
Overstock.com went public in May 2002. It was one of the first companies to go public under a system advanced by WR Hambrecht + Co to retain a greater share of capital within the company rather than going to the investment bank underwriters used in conventional public offerings.
In 2011, Byrne was named Ernst & Young National Entrepreneur of the Year, Retail and Consumer Products.
Resignation from Overstock.com
On August 12, 2019, Byrne issued a press release on overstock.com, about his role in the federal government’s investigation into the 2016 election, which caused shares of Overstock to fall for three consecutive trading days.
The following week, on August 19, 2019, he resigned from Overstock.com.
He said, in the press release:
In July I came forward to a small set of journalists regarding my involvement in certain government matters. Doing so was not my first choice, but I was reminded of the damage done to our nation for three years and felt my duty as a citizen precluded me from staying silent any longer…Though patriotic Americans are writing me in support, my presence may affect and complicate all manner of business relationships, from insurability to strategic discussions regarding our retail business.
Personal life
According to Byrne’s interview with The New York Times on August 15, 2019, he was romantically involved with Maria Butina, the Russian operative who used her National Rifle Association activism to infiltrate American politics. The two had met at a libertarian conference in Las Vegas in July 2015, where they discussed Milton Friedman, Anton Chekhov and John Locke.
Byrne is a cancer survivor, and has ridden a bicycle across the country to raise awareness and money for cancer research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Byrne has also supported implementing school vouchers and other educational reforms.
Byrne was the largest donor to political causes in Utah during 2003–2006, while his father was the third-largest.
Libel suit against Byrne
In October 2011, Byrne was sued for libel by Vancouver businessman, Altaf Nazerali. The suit claimed that Byrne's Deep Capture website had articles that described Nazerali as being involved with "Osama Bin Laden's favorite financier," and that he worked with criminal syndicates including the Colombian drug cartel, the Russian mafia, and various "jihadi terrorist groups" including al Qaeda's Golden Chain. Deep Capture also accused Nazerali of "delivering weapons to war zones in Africa and to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan," of orchestrating "small-time 'pump and dump' scams… and bust-outs, death spiral finance and naked short selling," and of carrying out dirty work for "a Pakistani ISI asset" who "works for the Iranian regime."
Nazerali won the case and in 2016, he was awarded $1.2 million in damages, including $500,000 in aggravated damages, $250,000 in punitive damages and $55,000 in special damages.
Byrne was permanently banned from publishing these accusations. The Court found Byrne, his employee Mark Mitchell, and Deep Capture "engaged in a calculated and ruthless campaign to inflict as much damage on Mr. Nazerali's reputation as they could achieve."
The judgment was upheld on appeal in August 2018.