Overstock Inc.

Type:	Public
Industry:	Internet Retailer
Founded:	1999
Founder(s):	Dr. Patrick M. Byrne
Headquarters:	Salt Lake City, Utah
Country:	USA
Revenue:	$1,089,873,000 as of 2010
Website:	Overstock.com
Facebook:	O.co
Twitter:	@odotco
Key People
Dr. Patrick M. Byrne, Chairman & CEO Jonathan E. Johnson III, President Geoff Atkinson, SVP, CRM & Demand Management Steve Chesnut, SVP Finance Sam Peterson, SVP Technology Stormy D. Simon, Board Member & SVP Customer Experience Stephen Tryon, SVP Logistics

Overstock.com, also known as O.co, is an online close out retail store offering a variety of brand name merchandise including apparel, bed & bath,electronics, home decorations, furniture, jewelry, kitchenware and many other products. The company also maintains an auction site where interested entities will be able to buy and sell products and services. A listing for cars and real estate for sale is also available in the company website.

History

Overstock.com was originally founded by Robert Brazell as D2: Discounts Direct, a limited liability corporation in 1997. D2:Discounts Direct failed and Dr. Patrick M. Byrne acquired the company. In 1999, Byrne re-launched the company website under its new name, Overstock.com selling excess inventory merchandise with less than 100 products. Byrne established Overstock.com under the principles of value,investing and fair dealing. Brazell remain President and CEO of the new Overstock.com until his resignation on October of 1999. He agreed to serve the company as consultant for 18 months.

At the end of year 1999, the company recorded a total revenue of $1,089,873,000. In 2000, Overstock.com acquired ToyTime.com Inc., Gear.com, a leading closeout online retailer of sporting goods, online jewelers Miadora.com, Jewelry.com.

In 2002, the company filed its Initial Public Offering (IPO) under the ticker symbol OSTK with the Security and Exchange Commission. Overstock.com offered 3 million common shares at $13 per share and it was able to raise $39 million.

Overstock.com acquired online travel company Ski West Inc. for $ 25 million cash in 2005. The acquisition expanded the company's travel business which was introduced to in 2003. However in 2005, the company decided to sell OTravel.com, its travel services subsidiary because of its $6.9 million loss and a goodwill impairment charge of 4.5 million in 2006.

On April 2011, Overstock.com acquired the naming rights of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum for six years. The name of the coliseum is now Overstock.com Coliseum.

Objective

The company aims to become the leading internet-based close-out solution for brand name merchandise holders and the primary one-stop online discount shop for consumers.

Company Growth

Since the company's re-launching 1n 1999 with only less than 100 products to sell, currently Overstock.com has more than 960,000 products for sale on its website. In 2010, it reported a total revenue of more than $1.089 billion with 1500 employees. Overstock.com's business operations expanded internationally. Its services is now available in 32 countries and its online retail store is now offering its products to consumers across 91 countries.

After re-branding Overstck.com to O.co in 2011, Patrick Byrne said that the company recorded an international sales of $ 6.6 million ending Sept. 30, a period of nine. The company's total revenue for the same period is $741 million up by 24%. The company was also ranked no. 27 by the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Byrne also added that currently O.co is shipping to consumers located in 94 countries. Furthermore, the company recently purchased the domain name O.info. Byrne said that the company plans to launch the site by March next year and it will provide consumers with product information, user manuals, buyer's guides and other related materials.

Worldstock Fair Trade (Worldstock.com)

In an effort to provide consumers with cheaper prices, Overstock.com created a department known as the Worldstock Fair Trade (Worldstock.com) by offering products made by artisans from developing countries such as Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, and Nepal. The company's main objective is not to make profit but to help create jobs for poor craftsmen and craftswomen in different countries around the world. As of September 2011, Worldstock Fair Trade has already created an estimated 10,000 jobs for artisans in 52 countries worldwide. As of August 2011, more than $71 million has been returned to the artisans from the sales price of products under Worldstock.com.

O.co

In 2011, Overstock.com purchased the O.co from .co Internet S.A.S. for $350,000 to launch a new brand for the company under the new domain name.

Awards

Overstock.com received several accolades from organizations including:

• The National Retail Federation & American Express- ranked 4th in Customer Service
• Stevie Awards- Customer Service Department of the Year and Retail and Sales Department of the Year (2011)
• Forbes- No. 1 in Employee Satisfaction
• Glassdoor- One of the Top Ten Best Places to Work in Corporate America

Legal Battle

In 2005, Overstock.com filed legal charges against Rocker Partners, a hedge fund known for its short-selling practices and Gradient Analytics, Inc., a research firm accusing both companies of conspiracy in defaming the companies reputation to make profit. Overstock.com cited that the two companies and some of their employees collaborated in releasing "malicious and tainted" research reports which affected the companies stocks resulting to a 44% drop in shares.

In 2008, Rocker Partners & Gradients Analytics settled their legal dispute with Overstock.com out of court. Rocker paid Overstock.com $5 million for damages while Gradient Analytics settlement with the company was undisclosed. Gradient issued a statement of regret and reverted its research reports about Overstock.com.

In 2007, Overstock.com filed a $3.48 billion lawsuit against Wall Street Companies Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and other brokers alleging that the companies illegally manipulated the stock market by practicing 'naked short selling," causing Overstock.com's share prices to drop. In November 2010, Overstock.com amended its lawsuit against Goldman Sachs adding an accusation of racketeering. The trial on the case is scheduled on December 2011 before a jury.

Overstock.com and ICANN

Issue on Single Letter and Two Character Domain Names

Overstock.com is a member of ICANN's Commercial and Business Users Constituency. The company has been involved in the different activities of ICANN since 2004. In 2005, Overstock.com's chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne, sent a letter to then ICANN CEO Paul Twomey requesting the ICANN Board to support a policy allowing the registration of single letter domain names. Byrne informed Twomey of its interest to register the single letter/second level domain name O.com.

Aside from Overstock.com, there was a significant number of third parties who also expressed their interest and inquiries on the issue. In response, ICANN created a Forum on Allocation Methods for Single-Letter and Single-Digit Domain Names based on the recommendation of the GNSO Council in 2007. Prior to the GNSO Council's recommendation, the Reserved Names Working Group reviewed and consulted technical experts about the technical implications of releasing single-letter and single-digit domain names from reservation. All possible single-letter and single-digit domain names were reserved by Jon Postel in 1993.

In 2009, Overstock.com launched O.biz after ICANN approved the proposal of Neustar to release one and two-character Domains. Overstock.com l partnered with Neustar in launching the new domain name to provide opportunity for small businesses and consumers interested in purchasing large quantities of products for bigger discounts.

Issue on Trademark Protection for New gTLDs

In 2009, Overstock.com's President Jonathan Johnson III expressed the company's concern regarding the issue on Trade Protection for new gTLDs. In his letter addressed to ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush and Rod Beckstrom, President; Johnson questioned the commercial needs for the introduction of hundreds of gTLDs and opined that such move means "adding new properties to the Monopoly board." He emphasized that the proposed protection measures of the IRT Final Report is not enough to protect the interests of brand owners. However. Johnson expressed his willingness to work with ICANN to create further solutions to resolve the concerns regarding trademark protection.