As Overstock.com
The company was founded as D2:Discounts Direct on May 5, 1997 by Robert Brazell. The company went bankrupt in 1999. Patrick M. Byrne and Jason Lindsey acquired the company and renamed it as Overstock.com.[7] The company initially sold exclusively surplus and returned merchandise on an online e-commerce marketplace, liquidating the inventories of at least 18 failed dot-com companies at below-wholesale prices.[8]
In 2001, Overstock set up the Worldstock division to showcase the work of artisans from around the world.[9][10] By 2006 there were approximately 6,000 producers contributing.[11][12]
In May 2002, Overstock held an IPO at a per-share price of $13. Amazon was one of the investors in Overstock.com that exited at the time of IPO.[13]
In addition to its direct retail sales, Overstock.com began offering online auctions on its website in 2004, known as Overstock.com Marketplace and later O.co Marketplace. This service was retired in July 2011.[14]
After initially relying solely on word-of-mouth marketing from customers,[15] the company turned to distinctive television advertisements starring German actress Sabine Ehrenfeld.[16][17] Later, they would employ other advertising spokespersons.
In July 2006, John J. Byrne, the father of Overstock's chief executive, resigned from the board of directors after a public airing of the elder Byrne's unhappiness with his son's actions against naked short-selling.[18] In August 2008, Jack Byrne said that after "much initial skepticism" he believed his son was "right all along" about the battle and lawsuits with short-sellers and analysts.[19] In 2010 the elder Byrne returned to the Overstock.com board of directors.
In early 2007, John A. Fisher and Ray Groves resigned from the Overstock board of directors over disagreement with the company's prime broker suit.[20][21]
On January 2, 2008,[22] Overstock announced that cofounder Jason Lindsey had resigned as president, COO, and as a director of Overstock effective from December 31, 2007. Byrne said Lindsey had "played a decisive role getting [Overstock] back on track" after "I screwed it up a couple years ago".[23] Overstock stock dropped to a four-year low following the announcement,[24] which an analyst for investment bank Broadpoint Capital described as a "key loss".[25]
After achieving significant growth and profits in some early quarters, the company achieved a profit of $7.7 million in 2009[26] and reported its first billion-dollar year in 2010.In 2011, revenues dropped 5 percent over a two-month penalty period imposed by Google. According to the Associated Press, Overstock set up fake websites linking back to its site. Overstock said it was penalized in part for a practice of encouraging college and university websites to post links to Overstock pages so that students and faculty could receive discounts. As a result of the Google penalty, search results for certain products dropped in Google rankings.[27][28]
The business started rebranding in early 2011, as "O.co," to simplify and unify its international operations[29] but interrupted this effort a few months later, citing consumer confusion over the new name, which utilized a Colombian country domain.[30]
During the same year, Overstock.com acquired naming rights to the former Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, renaming it Overstock.com Coliseum.[31] The Coliseum was later rebranded O.co Coliseum, in keeping with Overstock's then-rebranding as O.co (in April 2016, the name O.co Coliseum was dropped in favor of Oakland-Alameda Coliseum).
In 2013, Overstock began promoting increased immigration. Overstock president Jonathan Johnson told the Los Angeles Times that his firm had struggled to hire enough computer programmers and software developers to expand the business. "We pay more, and they are still hard to fill", he said. "We need to be more free in letting people in. That helps us solve our border problem. No one goes through the window of a house if they can ring the doorbell and come in the front door."[32]
In 2014, Overstock began developing software that would allow it to distribute corporate stock online instead of using traditional methods like the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.[33]
Byrne took an indefinite leave of absence in April 2016, because of hepatitis C complications. The general counsel, Mitch Edwards, was named acting CEO.[34] In July 2016, Byrne returned as CEO.
On August 22, 2019, CEO Patrick Byrne resigned his CEO and board seat at Overstock via a 1,600 word email. In the email he admitted to a romantic affair with Maria Butina, an unregistered foreign agent of Russia, but Byrne did not provide additional information on how this prompted his resignation.[35][36] Shortly thereafter, Jonathan E. Johnson became CEO.[37]
The company announced a digital dividend with a record date of September 23, 2019. For each 10 shares of traditional stock held, an investor would be entitled to 1 share of Digital Voting Series A-1 Preferred Stock. Initially the digital shares would only be tradable on the PRO Securities alternative trading system, which licensed its technology from tZero, an Overstock subsidiary focused on blockchain technology.[38]
