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• Overstock.com fails at real estate

  Posted Jun 10 2008, 12:17 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Overstock.com
  Rating:

  Overstock.com is getting into the real estate business, and that's not a good thing. The company launched today a real estate search application, at realestate.overstock.com. The idea, according to the company, is to be a unique site that shows classified, foreclosure and "hard to find" auction homes.

  Overstock's pitch piqued my interest because finding homes in foreclosure is a bit of a challenge. But when I went to the foreclosure listings on Overstock's site, it simply directed me to listings at Foreclosure.com, which wants to charge you $40 a month. Then I hunted around the "classified" section, which sent me to real estate brokers or to sites like HotPads.com.   Read More...

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• Overstock.com skids on analyst report

  Posted May 30 2008, 11:49 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Retail, Overstock.com

  Shares in Overstock.com plunged 7% today to $25.83 after Merrill Lynch cut its rating to "sell" from "hold." And thus ends the startling runup in shares of the online retailer. The stock has more than doubled since March.

  Why is Merrill so grumpy? Overstock had a great first quarter, which is the main reason why shares went up, but analyst Justin Post said he can't justify the current valuation, according to Barron's. Anything above $18 is simply too much at this point.   Read More...

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• Overstock.com CEO: We're on the edge of disaster!

  Posted Dec 10 2007, 09:39 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Overstock.com

  Overstock.com shares are still suffering after CEO Patrick Byrne let loose on the U.S. economy Friday on CNBC. Something tells me Byrne is hoarding water, duct tape and canned chili in his basement as he waits for the world to self-destruct.

  Some of his choicest comments are below. The video of the interview is here.

  "We're living at the edge of a 1929 kind of disaster."   Read More...

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• Facebook decides harassing members no longer good idea

  Posted Nov 30 2007, 04:13 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Microsoft, Facebook, Overstock.com
  Rating:

  Social networking site Facebook is finally backing away from its overly aggressive and ill-conceived advertising strategy. To understand how maddening this ad push was, consider what happened to Forrester analyst Charlene Li. As she explains on her blog, she recently bought a coffee table on Overstock.com. Then she logged into Facebook and saw this on her page:

   

  She used her personal e-mail address to buy the table and had no idea the purchase would show up on her Facebook news feed for all her friends and work contacts to see.   Read More...

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• Is Overstock overvalued?

  Posted Oct 22 2007, 10:36 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Overstock.com
  Rating:

  

  Overstock.com is getting lots of market love today, with shares up 7% after solid earnings news on Friday. The company's quarterly loss of 20 cents a share was way better than the 39 cents a share analysts had been expecting.

  Shares have seen a huge runup over the past year, going from $13.50 last November to about $34 today. I don't think Overstock has proven itself enough to justify such a high share price. The company has a history of bad decisions and other drama, and investors should wait before making the plunge.

  Piper Jaffray upgraded the stock today to Market Perform from Underperform and raised its target from $16 to $31. Other analysts have not been so kind; Stifel Nicolaus lowered its rating on the company last week to Sell from Hold, saying the shares are fully valued. No analyst has a "buy" on Overstock   Read More...

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