The Maven: Cleanup in Aisle Nine

Nothing produces courage in the press more than someone leaving power, and so it was that the living, breathing General Electric (GE) icon was taken to task for his retirement package, which was fitting for the Queen of Sheeba. Last week, Barron's gifted Mr. Welch with some poisoned candy in the form of a front-page spread about how, apart from reinsurance games, GE's earnings were, well, run-of-the-mill.

Speaking of which, no one ever accused Overstock.com (OSTK) overlord Patrick Byrne of being run-of-the-mill.

For a long time, story lines were preset: Byrne was either a "Baby Buffett" or the second coming of Amazon.com (AMZN) chieftain Jeff Bezos. (The Buffett nonsense came about because his daddy, Jack, is a Geico honcho and Warren Buffett chum; the Bezos came about because young Patrick said it was so.)

Too bad reporters didn't really get to know him, because once Byrne started to open his mouth under a little pressure, things got so good that even Mark Cuban -- the billionaire last seen on The Colbert Report peddling a buttocks cleaning product -- weighed in on his blog, calling Byrne a "paranoid fool" after Baby Bezos said a thing or three about rabbit holes and various conspiracies of mobsters shorting his stock. And that was some of the tamer stuff Baby Buffett said.

[As previously reported, Byrne has sued Rocker Partners, which owns 8% of the TheStreet.com(TSCM), along with Gradient Analytics, a research firm, accusing them of spreading false rumors about Overstock to drive down its share price. Rocker and Gradient, which Byrne believes is in cahoots with short-sellers, have denied wrongdoing. The matter is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.]

Anyhow, blue suede shoes or not, that about wraps it up for 2005. From Mr. and Mrs. Business Press Maven to you and yours, please have a happy, healthy and profitable 2006.

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