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User:Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The/Overstock/Analysis/Patrick M. Byrne

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Edit comments are for my own use. Use at your risk. I do not spend long on each edit and may quite easily miss something major.

December 2005

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January 2006

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February 2006

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March 2006

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April 2006

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  • 19:03, 6 April 2006 by Tomstoner, edit summary "adding Patrick Byrne possibly stepping down as Overstock chairman"
    • Adds story sourced to msnbc.com in which Stoner's father reportedly told the Wall Street Journal he was considering stepping down over what he described as his "headstrong" son's "jihad" [1]
  • 17:51, 29 April 2006 6 edits by Lastexit (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log) (recently blocked as an abusive sock of Mantanmoreland)
    • Significantly expands article
    • Section "Crusade against naked shorting", becomes 'Jihad' against naked shorting" (apparently this is the word coined by Byrne himself)
    • Adds new section "Media attention", sourced mainly to a Joe Nocera story in the New York Times, "Overstock's Campaign Of Menace" [2]

May 2006

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June 2006

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Nothing in the history for June, 2006

July 2006

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August 2006

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  • 02:32, 21 August 2006 by 68.100.85.32
    • Adds 'He has sinced backed off from the Sith Lord comment stating, in an unpublished Business Week interview, "By the way, the "Sith Lord" reference which so excited you fellows is probably imperfect. A better one is Al Qaeda: a loosely organized confederacy united by an ideology but lacking central control."' Sourced to thesanitycheck.com
    • Adds 'Gradient Analytics' as the research firm alleged by Byrne to be in collusion with Rocker Partners
    • Adds "World Stock" section. 'Patrick Byrne is also known for starting WorldStock, an initiative that states "Our goal in Worldstock is not to make money, but to create tens of thousands (and someday millions) of jobs in the poorest regions of the world, while bringing customers unique products of which they can be proud – hand-crafted clothing, jewelry, ceramics, furniture, and much' Sourced from overstock.com link.
    • Removes New York Times link, Fortune link and The Register link
    • Adds links to businessjive.com and worlstock.com (sic)
  • 03:04, 21 August 2006 revert by Mantanmoreland
  • 03:22, 21 August 2006 revert by Mfv (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log)
  • 04:10, 21 August 2006 revert by Mantanmoreland, edit summary "rv -- please stop replacing verifiable sources and links with non-notable ones pushing an agenda"
  • 04:11, 21 August 2006 revert by Mfv
  • 04:17, 21 August 2006 revert by Mantanmoreland, edit summary "rv POV-pushing"
  • 04:19, 21 August 2006 revert by Mfv
  • 04:45, 21 August 2006 revert by ESkog, edit summary "rv - unpublished = unverifiable"
  • 19:28, 22 August 2006 by 67.169.249.200 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), substantial edits to "'Jihad' against naked shorting"
  • 21:29, 22 August 2006 5 edits by Mantanmoreland
    • Sources "Sith Lord" claim (thestreet.com)
    • Introduces Byrne's Al Qaeda analogy (sourced to Fortune)
    • Cleans stuff up a bit
  • 07:04, 29 August 2006 2 edits by 141.149.54.179, changes a link, changes it back

September 2006

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October 2006

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November 2006

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December 2006

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January 2007

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February 2007

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March 2007

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  • 19:07, 10 March 2007 2 edits by 75.38.5.135, adds two external links to businessjive.com
  • 21:15, 10 March 2007 revert by Samiharris (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), edit summary "removing links from websites that do not meet Wikipedia standards", removes both businessjive links
  • 21:44, 10 March 2007 2 edits by Samiharris, adds story about Byrne's attempt to get naked short selling outlawed in Utah, quoting Nocera's rather gloating comments on its eventual failure (sourced to Joe Nocera's "Talking Business" column in the New York Times)
  • 21:47, 17 March 2007 2 edits by Piperdown (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), adds reference to the Bloomberg March 12 special on naked short selling, "Phantom Shares", which featured Byrne prominently
  • 00:51, 19 March 2007 revert by Samiharris, edit summary "appearing on a cable show is not worth mentioning"
  • 00:56, 19 March 2007 by Samiharris, adds 'Nocera renewed his criticism of Byrne in his March 2007 column, referring to him as "dangerous" and condemning him for his tactics in attacking critics.' and adding the third link to a single edition (Revisiting Overstock.com and Utah, March 10, 2007) of Nocera's opinion column in the article.
    • Now I call that tendentious. Or at the very least, exhibiting an unwarranted degree of animus towards the subject of the article
  • 00:59, 19 March 2007 2 edits by Samiharris, edit summary "removing weasel words"
    • "Campaign against naked shorting" -> "'Jihad' against naked shorting" (section heading)
    • Adds "and announced that he had commenced what he described as a "jihad" against that conspiracy" to introductory sentence of that section
    • "Not all media attention has been positive" -> "Much of the media attention has been negative"
  • 01:04, 19 March 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary "adding details on Hambrecht"
    • Adds 'Officials of Hambrecht, including its co-CEO Clay Corbus and chairman Gordon Macklin, were named to the Overstock board of directors.' sourced to a story on internetretailer.com
  • 17:22, 23 March 2007 by Piperdown, edit summary "this is a reliable source to "media attention" concerning Byrne, so it should be here", adds back Bloomberg special
  • 02:22, 30 March 2007 by Piperdown, edit summary "add USC Law Prof quote"
    • Adds: 'Byrne's campaign has also been noted by some legal pundits as having the potential to "help set new law if he handles this right," according to Kerry Fields, associate professor of law and business ethics at the University of Southern California. Fields opined that Byrne's "best approach now is probably to persuade the SEC, which continues to wander around the issue, or the government to serve subpoenas and let them decide whether or not his company was wronged."' Sourced to a story on CNET News.com by Greg Sandoval, "Overstock CEO reflects on Cramer debacle"
  • 17:52, 30 March 2007 2 edits by Samiharris, edit summary "adding details on lawsuit, context"
    • Expands Piperdown's entry to
      • 'In February 2007, Overstock.com launched a $3.5 billion lawsuit against Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other large Wall Street firms, saying the firms "have and continue to participate in a massive illegal stock market manipulation scheme" involving naked short selling. Nocera described the lawsuit as "ridiculous." John Coffee, director of the Center on Corporate Governance at Columbia University Law School, described it as "an extremely unpromising litigation," and said that Overstock "may quickly find out they bit off more than they can chew."' (sourced the latter to a Bloomberg News story by Danny King [5])
      • 'Kerry Fields, associate professor of law and business ethics at the University of Southern California, said "Byrne may be able to help set new law if he handles this right." However, Fields said, Byrne's "best approach now is probably to persuade the SEC, which continues to wander around the issue, or the government to serve subpoenas and let them decide whether or not his company was wronged.' (pretty much unchanged and with the original sourcing)

April 2007

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May 2007

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  • 22:03, 11 May 2007 by 155.97.54.12 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), edit summary " Naked shorting isn't always illegal - market makers can do it", adds to the sentence "In naked short selling, the shares are not borrowed prior to the sale, a practice which is illegal" the qualifier "in most situations."
  • 07:00, 12 May 2007 by QuiTacetConsentiret (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), edit summary "both links require subscription, see WP:LINKS", removes to links to New York Times and adds March 2006 CNET interview with Byrne (CNET News.com)
  • 15:09, 12 May 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary "adding new development"
    • New section "SEC investigation"
      • In May 2007, it was revealed the Byrne is the subject of an SEC investigation, and that he was waited a year before disclosing that had was served with an SEC subpoena in May 2006, stemming from the probe. The investigation elated to his company, Overstock.com. The SEC's subpoena sought, among other things, "documents relating to the company's accounting policies, the company's targets, projections or estimates related to financial performance, the company's recent restatement of its financial statements." The New York Post reported that the delayed disclosure was "eye-opening in that most companies tend to promptly disclose material information such as when a chief executive is the subject of an informal investigation.", sourced to a New York Post story
      • Overstock.com said in an SEC filing that Byrne and the company "have responded to these subpoenas and each continues to cooperate with the Securities and Exchange Commission on this matter (sourced to the company filing at sec.gov)
  • 22:42, 12 May 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary "minor edits, adding sources, removing personal blog as per WP:LINKS"
    • Remove blog link, Pan-Mass cycle ride link, addss sources (New York Times) without external links to the website
  • 22:55, 12 May 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary "adding new material to lead paragraph, adding sources"
    • Rewrites lead:
      • Patrick M. Byrne is the controversial CEO of Internet retailer Overstock.com. He has has become well known for his allegation of a wide-ranging stock market conspiracy involving hedge funds, the media, and analysts, for which he has been widely criticized. In May 2007, it was revealed that Byrne is the subject of a subpoena and investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. (with appropriate inline sourcing links)
  • 22:56, 12 May 2007 by Piperdown, adds back blog, citing discussion about WP:LINK on the talk page
  • 22:56, 12 May 2007 by Samiharris, removes "more sources" tag "as sources provided"
  • 23:11, 13 May 2007 by Piperdown, adds NPR interview with Byrne

June 2007

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  • 04:41, 2 June 2007 by Dorftrottel, removes "controversial" from lead, edit summary "too obvious POV"
  • 19:59, 13 June 2007 2 edits by 206.218.218.49 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), grammar tweak
  • 21:27, 13 June 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary " removing POV and subbing better quote from Wapo"
    • Tighten wording of first para on Dutch Auction IPO, remove a lot of weaseling
    • Summarise Byrne quote on the subject
    • Change last para of section
      • this: When Google also later went public via a Dutch Auction IPO, "That's when I smelled a skunk," said Byrne. "It was an orchestrated campaign by the banks that just didn't want to see it succeed."
      • to this: When Google also later went public via a Dutch Auction IPO,Byrne commented that Wall Street firms "had to be dragged into" participating in the Google stock offering. He contended that "from day one, I think they set out to sabotage it."
    • (Both quotes were sourced from the same Washington Post article)
  • 12:49, 20 June 2007 by Piperdown, edit summary " replace unsourced weasel wording with Cox quote"
    • Rewrites a middle paragraph of the "'Jihad' against naked shorting" section, removing a lot of weaseling
      • In particular, removes Numerous other writers and commentators have criticized what they believe to be Byrne's excessive zeal and overblown hyperbole in discussing this issue, while a similarly vocal group of advocates has taken Byrne's part.
  • 15:20, 20 June 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary "restoring neutral POV wording"
    • Restores some older wording changed by Piperdown in this edit:
      • "In an effort to curb abusive naked shorting" (Piperdown) -> "In an effort to curb whatever level of naked shorting may exist" (Samiharris)

July 2007

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  • 22:44, 10 July 2007 2 edits by Piperdown
    • Removes references to New York Times. One was vague, the other a duplicate entry
    • Adds link to video.ivillagelive.com, '"CEO with a Cause" NBC Ivillage interview'
  • 01:44, 11 July 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary "adding quote, changing links to refs"
    • Converts old Globe and Mail bare link to inline ref
    • Remove (unlinked) New York Times ref (a Joe Nocera column)
    • Adds a bit of information about Byrne's father
    • Remove redundant reference to overstock.com from "Background" section
    • Convert some other bare links to inline refs
    • Tweak order of paras in Dutch Auction IPO section
    • Considerably expand "Sith Lord" quote
    • Adds 'Two members of the Overstock.com board of directors, John Fisher and Ray Groves, resigned in protest against the lawsuit.' (the lawsuit against large Wall Street firms), sourced to two Bloomberg stories
    • Adds "fact" tags to unsourced statements
  • 02:26, 11 July 2007 by Piperdown, edit summary 'deleting the "NBC" in Ivillage? It's an NBC Universal company - added clarification for readers not familiar with company behind that site'
  • 02:27, 11 July 2007 by Piperdown, edit summary " that particular Nocera article is already in references section- rm redundancy"
  • 02:30, 11 July 2007 by Piperdown, edit summary "rgm.com is not a reliable source", removes Globe and Mail reference (the article was a copy hosted on an advocacy site, rgm.com, not a reliable source)
  • 02:39, 11 July 2007 revert by Samiharris, edit summary "adding back reference - if link is objectionable, remove that and not the reference; adding back Nocera article, not duplicative of ref and anyway no rule ext links cannot duplicate ref", reverts both preceding edits
  • 02:40, 11 July 2007 by Samiharris, edit summary "removing link if "non notable" but retaining reference", removes the non-kosher link from the Globe and Mail reference
  • 02:41, 11 July 2007 by Piperdown, adds 'Byrne also serves on the board of directors of the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation', sourced to the Foundation's website
  • 02:41, 11 July 2007 by Samiharris, tweaks section header name
  • 02:48, 11 July 2007 3 edits by Piperdown, removes redlink, minor tweaks to tense for passage of time
  • 10:35, 11 July 2007 by SmackBot, edit summary "Date/fix the maintenance tags or gen fixes"
  • 21:43, 30 July 2007 3 edits by 74.69.238.20 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log), childish vandalism
  • 22:12, 30 July 2007 vandalism revert by Samiharris

August 2007

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September 2007

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October 2007

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The above looks like a deliberate ruse to perform a controversial removal. Two closely linked IP numbers go in and perform successive edits--the first a removal, the second blatant vandalism. The second edit is noticed and reverted but the removal is overlooked. The result is that the "Media attention" section loses all record of positive media attention.

November 2007

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December 2007

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January 2008

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  • 18:33, 3 January 2008 2 edits by Samiharris, adds story about the President and COO of Overstock resigning, sourced to a (now defunct from website) story in the Salt Lake Tribune. Change lead to reflect Byrne's expanded role.
  • 17:39, 11 January 2008 4 edits by Samiharris, copy edits "Education lobbying" section, expands Byrne quote in response to failure of Utah state referendum on House Bill 148, replace advocacy site reference with Salt Lake Tribune reference, adds AP report quoting Byrne blaming and attacking the state governor
  • 21:25, 19 January 2008 7 edits by Samiharris
    • Quotes Byrne in an April, 2006 letter to the WSJ, forecasting "a few million Americans are going to show up at the corner of Wall and Broad with pitchforks and nooses."
  • 19:42, 20 January 2008 by Samiharris, edit summary "rv OR", removes piece on AMEX regulation disciplinary decisions for 2007
  • 00:18, 21 January 2008 edits by Post Doctorate y-o-y
    • Restore old paragraph: 'In August 2007, Byrne's suspicions of illegal shorting of Overstock.com shares were validated when details of American Stock Exchange discipline against Scott Arenstein emerged[6]. Arenstein and his firm, SBA Trading, LLC, apparently naked shorted Overstock.com from August 2005 until December of that year.' sourced to 'AMEX Nabs 2 for Reg SHO abuse; 1 Traded Overstock' from Dow Jones Newswire
  • 04:37, 21 January 2008 revert by Samiharris, edit summary "naked shorting not mentioned in either Amex release or Remond article; article specifically says Byrne allegations not borne out; reverting trivia per WP:NOT"
  • 18:57, 22 January 2008 6 edits by Samiharris
    • Rewrites AMEX piece as:
      • 'In July 2007, two American Stock Exchange options market makers were fined and suspended for using Regulation SHO exemptions to "impermissibly engage in naked short selling" in trades involving options and stocks for their own account. Overstock shares were believed to be among the stocks traded. The market makers settled without admitting or denying the allegations. None of the defendants sued by Overstock were named in the decision, and Dow Jones News Service said it "doesn't come close to amount to the massive conspiracy alleged by Overstock."', retains Dow Jones source and adds several amex sources
  • 20:30, 24 January 2008 2 edits by Cool Hand Luke
    • Queries as synthesis a section apparently linking a statement by Chris Cox to Byrne
    • Removes Original research counter-argument
    • Replaces extensive Nocera quote on Utah naked shorts bill with news items in two Utah newspapers
  • 20:41, 24 January 2008 Samiharris, concurs that Chris Cox item is synthesis and removes it.
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