Overstock.com Comments on DeepCapture.com Serialized Article: 'Michael Milken, 60,000 Deaths, and the Story of Dendreon'
July 8, 2009
Journalist and CEO Roles Clarified
SALT LAKE CITY, July 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overstock.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: OSTK) today commented on a recent series of article installments appearing on DeepCapture.com, an investigative journalism web publication co-founded by Patrick Byrne, Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com.
The serialized article was written by Mark Mitchell, formerly an editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal, a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, chief business correspondent for Time magazine in Asia, and assistant managing editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. The article investigates the Food and Drug Administration's actions regarding a prostate cancer vaccine, and actions taken by a group of short-selling hedge fund managers and Wall Street figures with ties to organized crime, 1980's convicted stock-manipulator Michael Milken, and TV's host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer.
"I strongly favor Mark's efforts in bringing this story to light," Byrne said, "but I think it best to clarify that my second career as one of DeepCapture.com's journalists is separate and apart from my role as Chairman and CEO of Overstock.com."
The article, entitled Michael Milken, 60,000 Deaths and the Story of Dendreon, centers on the travails of the biotech company, Dendreon, which was attacked by Wall Street operators right at the time when it seemed that the company's promising treatment for prostate cancer would receive FDA approval. Ultimately, the treatment was derailed by an unprecedented lobbying effort, causing Dendron's stock to tumble.
The DeepCapture.com website notes that one of its purposes "is to expose Wall Street money managers who engage in illegal naked short selling, stock manipulation, and the deliberate destruction of public companies." The site also states that though DeepCapture.com "was initially funded by Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com . . . it is not part of Overstock."
Jonathan Johnson, President of Overstock.com, welcomed the clarification, but went on to note that "Shareholders of Overstock.com and officers and shareholders of public companies throughout the United States are tracking the Mitchell article installments with great interest. There can be little doubt this nation is in an unprecedented time of financial hardship, and disclosures of this type are useful to help us understand the times we are in."
For more than four years Overstock.com has been at the forefront of the fight against Wall Street theft of American savings via rigged IPO processes, naked short selling and other settlement failures, coordinated bear raids, and regulatory capture. Naked short selling, a practice recently identified as accelerating the financial downfall of some of Wall Street's largest companies, including Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and AIG, is one of the most hotly debated financial regulatory topics in Washington D.C., where pressure is mounting on the SEC to step up enforcement efforts and further tighten loose short-selling rules that allow the manipulative practice to persist.
About Overstock.com
Overstock.com, Inc. is an online retailer offering brand-name merchandise at discount prices. The company offers its customers an opportunity to shop for bargains conveniently, while offering its suppliers an alternative inventory distribution channel. Overstock.com, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market System and can be found online at http://www.overstock.com. Overstock.com regularly posts information about the company and other related matters on its website under the heading "Investor Relations."
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SOURCE Overstock.com, Inc.
CONTACT: Media, Roger Johnson, +1-801-947-4430, [email protected], or Investors, Kevin Moon, +1-801-947-3282, [email protected], both of Overstock.com, Inc.
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