Overstock CEO Says 'My Bad'

Overstock.com (OSTK Quote) posted 64% revenue growth in the third quarter, but the online retailer's loss more than quadrupled, prompting effusive CEO Patrick Byrne to take the blame and say the results were his "bad."

Third-quarter revenue reached $169.3 million, up from $103.4 million a year ago. Overstock.com lost $14.2 million, or 75 cents a share, in the quarter. The Salt Lake City-based company had a loss of $3 million, or 16 cents a share, a year earlier.

"Q3 was rough," Byrne said in a prepared statement. "My bad. I bit off more technology projects than my colleagues could chew. The last bite, an [enterprise resource planning] implementation, was one bite too many, and we choked on it."

Byrne also said that during the quarter "unexpected bad things happened," while "expected good things did not happen."

Overstock recently sued New York hedge fund Rocker Partners, accusing it of conspiring to drive down the company's shares. Rocker, which owns about 8% of TheStreet.com Inc. (TSCM Quote), the publisher of this Web site, is countersuing.

Shares of Overstock were down 44 cents, or 1.3%, to $32.48 in premarket trading.