Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Did Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne cook the company's numbers and mislead investors? (Part 2)

At my very first accounting class at Bernard M. Baruch College, I was taught by the great distinguished Professor Abraham Briloff, that "accounting is the language of business." Professor Briloff saw CPAs as the guardians of capitalism against the cancer of white collar crime. However, as Crazy Eddie's paid for my education and gave me a full time salary off the books as I attended college, my goal was to be part of the brutal cancer of white collar crime that infects our great capitalist system.

White collar crime is a crime of persuasion. Often, the white collar criminal uses "the language of business" to persuade investors to buy their company's stock at an inflated values. At college, we had many debates about the essence of accounting. Is accounting an art or a science? For the white collar criminal, there is no debate: accounting is a work of art to be crafted.

Patrick Byrne's continued hyping of Overstock.com and deceit by using "the language of business" as an instrument of persuasion is nothing new. His deceptions follow the same pattern, time and time again: accentuate the positive, deflect from the negative, and minimize any concerns, and then raise capital to finance his money losing machine.

In part 1 of my series of blog posts entitled, "Did Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne cook the company's numbers and mislead investors?" I detailed how Patrick Byrne backtracked and used in his own words, a "a phony accounting standard--pro forma," the reduction of inventory reserves, and the reversal of previously booked nonrecurring expenses to hype up Overstock.com financial performance for the second quarter of fiscal year 2007. Without, the use of that "phony accounting standard--pro forma," Overstock.com's hyped up turn around would have all but disappeared. In addition, I detailed how the reduction in inventory reserves in the second quarter of fiscal year 2007, wiped away Overstock.com's entire improvement in operating income.

In part 2 of this series, I will detail the possible manipulation of earnings by Overstock.com using a technique, known as "managing earnings," that involves manipulating inventory reserves. I will detail how statements by Overstock.com about inventory and reserves are inconsistent and contradictory and as a result point to the possible manipulation of earnings.

Patrick Byrne had an unrevealed game plan in the first quarter of fiscal year 2006

Sometime during the first quarter of fiscal year 2006, Patrick Byrne knew that things would be really ugly at Overstock.com. He had a game plan to handle the crises. However, he kept things quiet until about a year later. Then, on April 25, 2007, during the first quarter fiscal year 2007 earnings conference call, Patrick Byrne would make the following startling admission:

We had our game plan. Really, we had our game plan as of Q1 last year [2006] of what was going to have to happen.
We knew things were going to get really ugly and the company was going to have take medicine but that we could come out of it a far better company, and that medicine was going to be in the form of some expenses, it was going to be in the form of dumping a bunch of inventory as we figured out really how to take our inventory management to the next level -- all kinds of things. We knew it was going to get ugly. Maybe not as ugly as it got but we thought we would come out in the first quarter smelling like a rose operationally and this is exactly what we -- what I at least thought was going to happen in the first quarter. [Emphasis added.]

Instead of coming clean with investors, Patrick Byrne was too busy hyping the future prospects of Overstock.com. For example, on March 1, 2006, appearing on CNBC, Patrick Byrne sounded optimistic about Overstock.com's prospects for the balance of the 2006 fiscal year as he made the following comments:

Our cash is just fine.
We'll be able to make it through this year comfortably.
Through the year we should have a nice positive cash flow.
We should be EBITDA positive this year.

Five days later, on March 6, 2006, Patrick Byrne was interviewed by Greg Sandoval for an article entitled "Newsmaker: CEO in the Hot Seat" published by c/net news.com:

We have a plan this year that we should cross the billion-dollar mark....
This year, with a little luck, we should be an EBITDA-profitable year, so I'm kind of comfortable with that.

Patrick Byrne's performance has not matched his hype

Hyping Overstock.com's financial prospects only to later disappoint investors is nothing new for Patrick Byrne. Overstock.com's revenue for fiscal year 2006 ended up about $200 million short, at about $796 million. Its EBITDA ended up way off the mark too, at around negative $65 million. There was no "nice positive cash flow" for Overstock.com in fiscal year 2006 as operating cash flow ended the year at about negative $26 million. Overstock.com required cash infusions of over $50 million from two equity offerings during the year, so it "it not make it through" the year "comfortably."

First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2006

Despite Patrick Byrne's previous claims on CNBC and c/net news that Overstock.com would be "EBITDA positive" better in 2006, the company reported dismal results in the first quarter of the 2006 fiscal year. While revenue had increased about 9% to $180.2 million from $165.9 million versus the comparable first quarter of fiscal year 2005. Gross profit margins dropped to 14% from 14.9% and net losses more than tripled to $15.9 million from $4.3 million.

On April 28, 2006, during the first quarter earnings conference call, Doug Anmuth, from Lehman Brothers asked Patrick Byrne about his previous statements about achieving positive EBITDA:

...you gave a pretty rough outlook in terms of your claim that you could do break-even or better EBITDA and operating cash flow for the year. Do those numbers still hold?

Despite the fact that losses tripled in the first quarter, meaning that Overstock.com would have to make up a lot of lost ground to achieve "break-even or better EBITDA and operating cash flow" for the entire year, Patrick Byrne still claimed EBITDA would be break even or better:

As far as break-even on an EBITDA basis, definitely. It would be hard for us to break even on a GAAP basis, but with $35 million of depreciation and amortization, having that back into the -- I would imagine yes, we should break even or better. [Emphasis added.]

With massive losses in the first quarter and the knowledge that that "things were going to get really ugly and that the company was going to have to take medicine...in the form of dumping a bunch of inventory" how could Patrick Byrne still claim that Overstock.com would "definitely" end up the year at "break even or better" on an EBITDA basis?

Was it a delusional fantasy, hype, or plain old stupidity?

Gross inventories (before reserves) declined from about $98.5 million at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2005 to about $84.7 million at the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2006. Inventory reserves dropped during the first quarter from about 5.32% of gross inventory to about 3.90%, for about a 27% reduction in relative reserves. Overstock.com's reduction in inventory reserves added about a full percent to gross margins. Had there not been a reduction in such reserves, Overstock.com's gross margin decline from 2006 to 2005 would have doubled from about 0.9% to 1.9%.

During the conference call, Overstock.com's management remained silent about the material impact of the reduction of reserves on gross margins.

Patrick Byrne hyped Overstock.com's future gross margin prospects by appearing optimistic, claiming that such gross margins would improve by at least 2% to 3% after a stable second quarter:

Our gross margin I think is going to be stable for the second quarter, as we keep making these changes, but I gave you the reasons why I think there's 200 or 300 basis points. I ultimately think this is a 17% or 18% gross margin business, and I think we can get there in the near future. In the fourth quarter, certainly a number around 17%. [Emphasis added.]

Like the billion dollars in annual revenue that never happened, the positive EBITDA that was never achieved, none of Patrick Byrne's hyped up guidance on future gross margins for 2006 were ever achieved, too. They declined dismally during the remainder of the fiscal year.

Patrick Byrne went on to claim how sophisticated Overstock.com systems were in monitoring Overstock.com's inventories and squeezing out every last dollar of profit:

One of the first things that they have done that's been very powerful is they let us do much more sophisticated inventory analysis, and we just really think we should be able to squeeze a lot out of our inventory. [Emphasis added.]

Therefore, Patrick Byrne had the knowledge and the means to understand the extent of Overstock.com's substantial inventory problems but instead let inventory reserves drop in the first quarter.

Patrick Byrne was questioned about a 3% drop in gross margins on its direct revenue category compared with the previous year:

Scott Devitt - Stifel Nicolaus: Just a follow-up on the direct gross margin. It was down 300 basis points, and I think, Patrick, in the letter you noted warehouse costs as being one explanation. I'm wondering, because the inventory level was high coming out of 4Q, what component of that was pricing just to drain inventory levels as well.
Patrick Byrne: There's definitely a piece of that in the first quarter, and there will be a piece of that in the first part of the second quarter, although we've come out of it now, but we did mark things down in order to flush things through. So that hurt our margins a bit. [Emphasis added.]

Did Overstock.com really "come out of it now" and was the junk inventory flushed out?

It seemed from Overstock.com's large reduction of inventory reserves, that some of its junk inventory was flushed out. However, inventory reserve levels as a percentage of gross inventories were still 50% higher than in the previous fiscal year's quarter (about 3.90% vs. 2.59%). Despite, Patrick Byrne's statement claiming "we've come out of it now" it seemed the Overstock.com had more inventory to flush out than he led everyone to believe. Inventory reserve levels were higher compared to last year's quarter. In addition, he did not share with anyone yet that "things were going to get really ugly and the company was going to have to take medicine...in the form of dumping a bunch of inventory."

Armed with the knowledge that things were going to get "really ugly" regarding Overstock.com's inventories and "very powerful" systems that permitted "much more sophisticated" analysis, we have to ask why did Overstock.com reduce its inventory reserves in the first quarter knowing it had to "dump a bunch of inventory?"

Apparently, Patrick Byrne was trying to hype up Overstock.com's prospects by still claiming that EBITDA would be break-even or positive. The reduction in inventory reserves cut in half the decrease in gross margins during the quarter.

Was Patrick Byrne attempting to play down concerns over inventory and gross margins?

Did Overstock.com need a cash infusion despite Patrick Byrne's claim on CNC about 7 weeks earlier that the company will "be able to make it through this year comfortably" and that it should have a "nice positive" cash flow?

During the first quarter earnings conference call, David Chidester discussed cash flows:

...operating cash flows during the quarter were an outflow of $73 million and free cash flows were an outflow of $80 million. [Emphasis added]

Obviously, Overstock.com was bleeding cash fast despite Patrick Byrne's statements on CNBC on March 1, 2006 that:

Our cash is just fine.
We'll be able to make it through this year comfortably.
Through the year we should have a nice positive cash flow. [Emphasis added.]

During the earnings conference call, Patrick Byrne attempted to play down the issue of burning cash flows:

Liquidity -- I know folks are talking about liquidity. I don’t see -- I’m always more comfortable doing barrel rolls close to the ground than my passengers. I don’t see us as having liquidity crises.

Just days later, on May 3, 2007, Overstock.com got a badly needed cash infusion $25 million, despite Patrick Byrne's previous comments. Overstock.com's Prospectus Supplement stated under the "Use of Proceeds" section:

Unless otherwise indicated in any prospectus supplement, the net proceeds from the sale of securities offered by this prospectus will be used for general corporate purposes and working capital, including sales and marketing activities and inventory purchases. In addition, we may use a portion of the net proceeds to acquire complementary technologies or businesses. However, we currently have no commitments or agreements and are not involved in any negotiations with respect to any such transactions [Emphasis added.]

Delays in disclosures followed by later admissions is nothing new for Patrick Byrne


On May 9, 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission began a formal investigation of Overstock.com. While Patrick Byrne belatedly revealed on August 12, 2005 that an informal SEC inquiry had begun months earlier in February 2005, Overstock.com made no mention of the informal inquiry in its reports filed with the SEC. After the formal investigation by the SEC was disclosed, Overstock.com 's pending infusion of about $16 million in stock equity was canceled.

On May 17, 2006, Patrick Byrne received a personal subpoena from the SEC as part of its probe of Overstock.com. It was not until almost an entire year later, that Overstock.com finally disclosed Byrne's personal subpoena from the SEC in its 10-Q that was released on May 9, 2007. Months later, on August 10, 2007, after previous denials that an embittered Patrick Byrne finally revealed that he is the target of an ongoing investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and claimed that high level government employees at the SEC were corrupt.

Second Quarter of Fiscal Year 2006

Despite Patrick Byrne's previous claims on March 1 on CNBC, on March 6 in c/net news, and on April 28 that Overstock.com would be "EBITDA positive" or better in 2006, the company reported worsening results in the second quarter of fiscal year 2006.

With the filing of Overstock.com's 10-Q for the second quarter, it became apparent how Overstock.com's dismal cash flow situation was worsening despite Patrick Byrne's comment during the first quarter earnings conference call on April 28, 2006 saying, "I don’t see us as having liquidity crises." On June 30, 2006 Overstock.com's cash balance dropped to $45.7 million from $51.8 million on March 31, 2006 despite receiving a cash infusion of $25 million from selling common stock on May 3, 2006.

Operating cash flow for the quarter was negative $6.2 million and free cash flow was negative $12 million.

While revenue had increased about 6% to $160.0 million from $150.6 million versus the comparable second quarter of fiscal year 2005. Gross profit margins dropped to 14.4% from 15.1% and net losses increased to a staggering $15.8 million from $2.0 million.

However, during the previous first quarter conference call Patrick Byrne had claimed:

Our gross margin I think is going to be stable for the second quarter.... [Emphasis added.]

Patrick Byrne's previous claim that gross margins would be "stable for the second quarter" is contradicted by admission about a year later, on April 28, 2007, that he had a "game plan" in the first quarter. He "knew things were going to get really ugly" and that the company was going to have take medicine...the form of dumping a bunch of inventory."

Gross inventories (before reserves) declined from about $84.7 million at the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2006 to about $78.2 million at the end of the second quarter. However, inventory reserves rose during the second quarter from about 3.90% of gross inventory to about 4.35%, for almost a 12% increase in relative reserves.

Previously, Patrick Byrne had claimed during the first quarter earnings conference call that Overstock.com's inventory issues were over despite his undisclosed plan the "dump" inventory at very low prices:

...we've come out of it now, but we did mark things down in order to flush things through.

Now, in the second quarter, inventory reserves increased about 11% on a relative basis. We need to ask, did Overstock.com begin at that time a gradual bump up reserves again to regain lost ground from previously understating inventory reserves?

Was the bump up in inventory reserves a reaction to the SEC formal investigation of Overstock.com that began on May 9, 2006? The SEC had subpoenaed a broad range of documents about Overstock.com's financial disclosures and accounting policies.

Patrick Byrne knew that things were "ugly" and had a plan to "dump" inventories. He had claimed that Overstock.com was finished with its inventory problems in the first quarter. Now, Patrick Byrne apparently needed to make up for previous understatements of inventory reserves. After all, Overstock.com had already raised new equity and the SEC closing was focusing on Byrne.

During the second quarter fiscal year 2006, earnings conference call, Jason C. Lindsey assured investors that inventory was "more than adequately reserved" and that as a result there will be "no more drag on margins":

You have seen there is a drag on margins in the first and second quarter from selling this stuff. So far, it has sold okay. We are getting rid of it and it does not look like we have - obviously, we are more than adequately reserved, I think, for all of it, but just as far as having sold the last of it, so that there is no more drag on margins, we definitely want to have that happen by the end of the year. [Emphasis added.]

However, despite Jason C. Lindsey's statement (above) that "we are more than adequately reserved...so that there is no more drag on margins," during the next two quarters of fiscal year 2006, Overstock.com's gross margins markedly declined as inventory reserves significantly increased.

Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2006

During the third quarter of fiscal year 2006, revenues dropped about 6% to $158.7 million from $169.3 million versus the comparable third quarter of fiscal year 2006. Gross profit margins declined to 14.5% from 15.7%.

However, in the previous second quarter conference call, Jason C. Lindsey had claimed:

...there is no more drag on margins....

Gross inventories (before reserves) declined from about $78.2 million at the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2006 to about $73.3 at the end of the third quarter. However, inventory reserves rose during the third quarter from about 4.35% of gross inventory to about 6.14%, for almost a 41% increase in relative reserves.

However, in the previous second quarter conference call, Jason C. Lindsey had claimed:

...obviously, we are more than adequately reserved...

On November 6, 2006, during the third quarter earnings conference call Patrick Byrne sang a different tune about gross margins. Discussing the declining trend of gross margins on at Overstock.com, Patrick Byrne stated:

I am going to put some meat on that, because we think that we can dramatically reduce inventory from here. But to move that amount of inventory, core inventory, we are giving great deals, better than -- well, we are giving great deals and clearing a whole bunch of stuff out, so we will end with extremely fresh inventory and a much smaller amount than you have ever seen us run with as a fraction of sales....
But to do that, to clean out every nook and cranny in the warehouse, is going to require clearance prices on it, so that is why the margins are going to hurt. [Emphasis added.]

Later, during the third quarter earnings conference call, there was the following question and answer:

Frank Gristina - Avondale Partners: What kind of margins when you are liquidating are you getting...?
Jason C. Lindsey - Unfortunately, they are kind of all over the board. There is $10 million to $20 million worth of stuff in our warehouse now that we do not ever want to have in our warehouse again. We are clearing it out nicely.

With "$10 million to $20 million" in junk inventory needing to be liquidated, Jason C. Lindsey was obviously playing down the extent of losses by balancing the negative and the positive. He said:

Some of the stuff is negative and some of the stuff is fairly profitable. We just do not want to be in that category anymore for a lot of reasons. [Emphasis added.]

Despite the talk of reduced gross margins during the third quarter earnings conference call, there was no discussion as to the adequacy of inventory reserve levels despite Lindsay's statements in the previous quarter's conference call that Overstock.com's inventories were "more than adequately reserved."

During next quarter, not only would gross margins dramatically decline, but there would be an almost four-fold increase in relative inventory reserves.

With the third quarter conference call disclosure that Overstock.com was "giving great deals and clearing a whole bunch of stuff out" we need to ask, did management realistically value its inventory at the end of the third quarter at the lower of cost or market as required under GAAP?

Did Overstock.com understate its inventory reserves and overstate inventories at the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2006? Did Overstock.com purposely delay taking reserves on its inventory until after it received a cash infusion by raising new equity?

Net losses for the third quarter about doubled to $24.5 million from $12.4 million from the previous year's quarter.

While net cash from operating activities was a paltry $806 thousand, free cash flow was negative $7 million. Overstock.com's cash balance continued to drop from $45.7 on June 30, 2006 to $39.4 million.

On November 6, 2006, Overstock.com's third quarter press release, Patrick Byrne claimed:

We experience our annual cash nadir in early November, and then see a steady inflow of cash through the remainder of Q4.

Despite, Patrick Byrne's comments in the press release, about five weeks later, on December 15, 2006, Overstock.com raised over $35 million in new equity in a common stock offering.

Fourth Quarter of Fiscal Year 2006

The fourth quarter of fiscal year 2006 was a nightmare for Overstock.com. Revenue had dropped about 6% to $294 million from $315.0 million versus the comparable second quarter of fiscal year 2005. Gross profit margins dropped to 9.3% from 14.0% and net losses continued to grow to $45.6 million from $6.3 million.

However, during the previous second quarter conference call, Patrick Byrne had claimed:

I ultimately think this is a 17% or 18% gross margin business, and I think we can get there in the near future. In the fourth quarter, certainly a number around 17%. [Emphasis added.]

However, despite Patrick Byrne's claim that gross margins during the fourth quarter of 2006 would "certainly" be around 17%, it ended up at 9.3%.

For the entire fiscal year, sales ended at $796.4 million (before certain adjustments were made after the press release was issued in the 10-K), far short of the $1 billion and more in revenues touted by Byrne on March 6 and April 28, 2006. EBITDA for the fiscal year ended up at around negative $65 million, far below the "break-even" or better amount previously hyped by Byrne.

During the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2006, as Overstock.com's gross inventories (before reserves) declined from about $73.3 million at the end of the third quarter to about $26.9 million, while inventory reserves rose from about $4.5 million to $6.585 million. The percentage of inventory reserves to gross inventory rose dramatically from 6.14% to 24.52%, or almost a 300% relative increase in reserves.

During the fourth quarter earnings conference call, Jason C. Lindsey, Overstock.com's Chief Operating Officer, made the following statements, relating to inventories and gross margins:

We took all that to heart in the fourth quarter and although the fourth quarter results are very bad, and I admit they are very bad, they were bad on purpose. In other words, we used the fourth quarter to get rid of all the slow-moving inventory. I am quite pleased with the inventory balances we have now.
...I am pleased that the fourth quarter is now over. We have sold it. [Emphasis added.]

During the previous quarter's conference call, Jason C. Lindsey had claimed that there was "$10 million to $20 million worth of stuff in our warehouse now that we do not ever want to have in our warehouse again" and that Overstock.com was "clearing it out nicely." Now he claimed that they sold the crap.

Later, in its 10-K report released for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006, Overstock.com elaborated further:

We consciously and aggressively discounted older inventory during the fourth quarter, and as a result, our direct gross margins were negatively impacted. However, we did this to significantly clean and reduce our inventory in an effort to reduce the overall SKU (stock keeping unit) count on our website and to refine our product selection to categories that turn faster and have higher profitability. [Emphasis added.]

If the crappiest inventory was not around at the end of the fourth quarter, we would have to ask, why did Overstock.com book huge inventory reserves after claiming to have dumped their crappiest inventory?

Was Overstock.com possibly overstating inventory reserves at the end of the fourth quarter after understating such reserves at the end of the third quarter? Could it be that Overstock.com took advantage of an already catastrophic quarter to book added inventory reserves? By booking excess inventory reserves in the fourth quarter, it could increase future gross margins.

During the fourth quarter conference call, Jason C. Lindsey had claimed that Overstock.com had gotten "rid of all the slow-moving inventory" and "sold it" during the fourth quarter. If so, why were inventory reserves at all time highs?

For the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2006, Overstock.com reported negative gross margins of about $3.6 million on its direct revenues while gross margins dropped on its fulfillment partner revenues. My calculations indicate that Overstock.com lost about $7 million from liquidating about $40 million in inventory during the fourth quarter. If only "$10 million to $20 million" of the liquidated inventories were considered junk, as claimed by Lindsey in the previous quarter, Overstock.com would have taken even greater dollar losses on its liquidated inventory.

Did Overstock.com appropriately value its inventory at the lower of cost or market value at the end of the previous third quarter?

Did Overstock.com delay the recognition of possible additional required inventory reserves until after it raised new equity in its common stock offering on December 15, 2006?

In addition, on December 31, 2006, Overstock.com took charges of about $5.7 million for restructuring expenses and about $6.9 million for losses from discontinued operations.

The company was experiencing massive losses and increased negative cash flows going into the fourth quarter.

April 25, 2007: First Quarter Fiscal Year 2007 Conference Call

Patrick Byrne finally admitted that as of the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, he had a "game plan...of what was going to have to happen." He knew things were going to get really ugly and the company was going to have take medicine... in the form of dumping a bunch of inventory."

Let's analyze pattern of Overstock.com's inventory reserves.

At the end of the last quarter of fiscal year 2005, inventory reserves were about 5.32%. At the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2006, inventory reserves dropped to 3.90% of gross inventory. By the end of the second quarter of fiscal year 2006, inventory reserves grew gradually to about 4.35% of gross inventory. For the third quarter of fiscal year 2006, inventory reserves grew to about 6.14% of gross inventory and in the last quarter of fiscal year 2006 inventory reserves massively grew to about 24.5% of gross inventory.


Considering the growth of inventory reserves relative to gross inventory during fiscal year 2006, it seems based on Patrick Byrne's statement (above) that Overstock.com took its sweet time to increase inventory reserves to appropriate levels.

During the first quarter fiscal year 2007 earnings conference call, Jason C. Lindsey continued to explain the liquidation of Overstock.com's crappiest inventory for the previous fiscal year's fourth quarter:

....another dynamic that is going on is as we liquidated all of our slow-moving inventory and things that did not meet our metrics last year, we really sold everything and got our inventory extremely fresh. [Emphasis added.]

The reasonable question remains that if Overstock.com liquidated all of its "slow-moving inventory" during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2006 as stated above by Jason C. Lindsey, why was there a need for an inventory reserve of about 24.5% of gross inventory?

In addition, during the previous fourth quarter earnings conference call quarter earnings conference call, Jason C. Lindsey had also claimed that:

...we used the fourth quarter to get rid of all the slow-moving inventory.

However, later in the first quarter conference call, Jason C. Lindsey, backtracked and contradicted his earlier statement that Overstock.com "liquidated all our slower moving inventory...we really sold everything" by saying:

Now, one thing that we didn't sell was kind of all of our spring garden patio type of stuff....

So we do still have several million dollars worth of stuff that we call our excess inventory from last year that we didn't liquidate that we are going to be liquidating now and even into the beginning of the third quarter. Although we reserved against that and do feel like we have an adequate reserve and that we will be forced to -- and we will release that reserve some as we sell that stuff. I am just not sure exactly the clearing price of all that. [Emphasis added.]

Hey, remember what Jason C. Lindsey said previously on July 28, 2006 about adequate inventory reserves? Overstock.com later booked huge increases in inventory reserve amounts in the next three quarters. Do you trust Mr. Lindsey's reserve estimates?

Patrick Byrne would elaborate further:

But the one set of things he didn't do was the millions of dollars of that furniture, wrought-iron furniture, you can't sell it at Christmas. But we do have -- a big chunk of our inventory is still that and when that disappears over the next two months, three months, that is a significant chunk of our inventory and Jason has taken a very healthy reserve against all of that inventory. [Emphasis added.] 

I note that Jason C. Lindsey in previously describing (above) the previous third quarter fiscal year 2006 results had claimed that:

There is $10 million to $20 million worth of stuff in our warehouse now that we do not ever want to have in our warehouse again. We are clearing it out nicely.

 At the end of the third quarter of fiscal year 2006, with gross inventory at about $73.3 million (before reserves), Overstock.com's inventory reserves were about $4.5 million or about 6.1% of gross inventory. As stated above, Jason C. Lindsey claimed that there was "$10 to $20 million worth" of excess inventory at the end of the third quarter for fiscal year 2006.

Now, at the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2007, with "several million in worth of...excess inventory," (which would seem to imply less excess inventory than at the third quarter of fiscal year 2006), Overstock.com had gross inventory (before reserves) of about $23.2 million and inventory reserves of $6.5 million or about 28.1% of gross inventory.

Therefore, with apparently less junk inventory in first quarter of fiscal year 2007, Overstock.com had booked over 350% more relative reserves than the previous third quarter of fiscal year 2006. After all, Patrick Byrne was now claiming to have "very healthy" inventory reserves.

So, I ask you: Is Overstock.com engaged in a practice known as "earnings management" by manipulating its inventory reserves?

Did Patrick Byrne hype Overstock.com's prospects like a penny stock promoter?

If Overstock.com did not engage in any malfeasance, is Patrick Byrne an incompetent CEO with delusional fantasies about Overstock.com's future financial performance?

Is Patrick Byrne just an out and out liar?

Part 3 of my blog series, "Did Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne cook the company's numbers and mislead investors?" coming soon.

Written by:

Sam E. Antar (former Crazy Eddie CFO & convicted felon)

Other blogs covering this issue:

Tracy Coenen: Earnings management at Overstock.com?

Gary Weiss: Did Overstock.com Cook the Books?

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