For over 20 years, Patrick Byrne has been at the helm of the retailer giant Overstock serving as its CEO and chair. However, his tenure has had some controversies leading to him resigning as the chair and CEO.
Out of all the controversies during his tenure, his romantic relationship with a Russian spy agent Mari Butina was the bombshell that skyrocketed into his resignation. Byrne came out last week to a set to journalist to issue his statement about his involvement in political espionage targeting US presidential aspirants in the 2016 elections. Though she’s serving 18 months in prison, her relationship with Byrne did a lot of harm after the announcement Overstock share plunged by 30%.
Apart from his involvement with Ms. Butina, per his resignation letter, Byrne feels his relationship with Overstock will hurt the company’s business. Similarly, the disappointing performance of the firm in its first quarter is also another reason.
TZero Overstock’s crypto token platform accounted for a pretax loss amounting to $12.6 million. During his tenure, Byrne was at the center of tZero creation and the start of Overstock accepting payments in Bitcoin. Despite this, Byrne affirmed his faith and believes that blockchain will not only revolutionize but also reshape vital social institutions.
Apart from the above information, articles online indicate Byrne wants to sale Overstock, and his controversial involvement in the firm might hurt the value of the firm. After his resignation shares of Overstock went up by 10 percent.
Although he’s out as the CEO and chair of Overstock, the board has already taken measures to fill the void Byrne has left behind. In his position on the board, Kamelia Aryafar will step up and assume the responsibilities of as a board member. Moreover, Aryafar will also become Overstock’s Retail executive vice president.
On the other hand, Jonathan Johnson will become Overstock’s CEO but on an interim basis.
Though the above throws Overstock back into the drawing board, it seems Byrne resignation has not caused any challenges. It is just recently that tZero added another coin Ravencoin into its list of supported cryptocurrencies. Now its token platform has three currencies. The other two are bitcoin and ethereum.
