Longtime Market Reform Advocate Issues Statement on SEC's Proposed New Fannie/Freddie Regs

    SALT LAKE CITY, July 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today, in response to
 news that the SEC will institute an emergency order to curtail naked short
 selling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock by requiring traders to
 pre-borrow the stock, Overstock.com chairman and CEO and a longtime
 advocate for anti-naked short selling reform, Patrick Byrne issued the
 following statement:
 
     "I wholeheartedly celebrate Christopher Cox's decision to enforce the
 rule of law as it regards trading in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock. It
 looks like the SEC may finally be getting the joke. For years, members of
 Congress, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, academics, Overstock and other
 companies have been calling for a pre-borrow to stop the manipulative
 trading of abusive naked short sellers. What I don't understand is why the
 SEC is extending the rule of law only to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. We now
 have an apartheid capital market.
 
     "The act of trading stocks without borrowing them first is a
 particularly egregious form of illegal market manipulation that has
 threatened our financial system for too long. I urge the SEC to extend the
 rule of law to the entire market, and not simply favored quasi-governmental
 corporations. Now that we are experiencing systemic failure, precisely as
 naked shorting activists predicted, we should ask the SEC: Why should two
 corporations alone deserve the protection for which hundreds of other firms
 have been unsuccessfully clamoring?" said Byrne.
 
     About Overstock.com
 
     Overstock.com, Inc. is an online retailer offering brand-name
 merchandise at discount prices. The company offers its customers an
 opportunity to shop for bargains conveniently, while offering its suppliers
 an alternative inventory distribution channel. Overstock.com, headquartered
 in Salt Lake City, is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global
 Market System (Nasdaq:   OSTK) and can be found online at
 http://www.overstock.com.
 
     Overstock.com(R) is a registered trademark of Overstock.com, Inc. All
 other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
 
     This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within
 the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of
 the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward-looking statements
 include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the SEC's grasp of
 the problem and whether the SEC will extend protections beyond favored
 companies. Our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, our
 subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, or any amendments thereto, and
 our other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
 identify important factors that could cause our actual results to differ
 materially from those contained in our projections, estimates or
 forward-looking statements.
 
 
 

SOURCE Overstock.com