Back in 2009 I queried a marketing contact at Overstock.com about possibly interviewing Patrick Byrne, the CEO. “I’ll ask him,” the contact replied.<\/p>\n
An hour or two later, I received an email \u2014 from Patrick Byrne.<\/p>\n
The dialog and subsequent interview are memorable. He involved no public relations personnel \u2014 unusual for a publicly traded company \u2014 and required no preparation.<\/p>\n
“Should I send my questions in advance?” I asked.<\/p>\n
“No,” he said. “Ask whatever you want.”<\/p>\n
We published the interview<\/a> in December of that year. I learned he held a Stanford PhD and funded the construction of schools worldwide. He shared in the interview helpful ecommerce tips on holiday selling and shipping and was generous with his time, utterly unpretentious.<\/p>\n None of that squared with the Patrick Byrne years afterward, the one embroiled in nonstop investor lawsuits, who reportedly romanced a Russian spy, and, yes, the man scheming in the Trump Oval Office.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, I think of Byrne and the years-ago interview when Overstock makes the news, such as last year when it purchased Bed Bath & Beyond, the retail chain, out of bankruptcy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Byrne had long since left the company. His successors evidently sought a post-pandemic reset and paid $21 million for whatever was left of the storied retailer. Thus began a disastrous chain of events.<\/p>\nBed Bath & Beyond<\/h3>\n
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