Overstock.com Responds to Rocker's and Gradient's Motions Thursday November 17, 5:56 pm ET Rocker and Gradient Do Not Deny the Substance of Our Lawsuit, Claiming Instead That it is 'Protected Speech' Far From Following Up on Their Threats, Neither Gradient Nor Rocker Has Filed a Countersuit, Choosing Instead to Hide Behind California's Anti-SLAPP Statute Gradient and Rocker Will do Whatever it Takes to Avoid Discovery or a Trial
SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Overstock.com® (Nasdaq: OSTK - News) issued the following statement in response to Rocker Partners' and Gradient Analytics' motion to dismiss Overstock.com's unfair business practices lawsuit.
Patrick Byrne, president of Overstock.com:
"Anyone following our lawsuit should note that Rocker and Gradient failed to do two things. Though in the past their shills have accused me of making wild accusations, in their responses Rocker and Gradient do not deny the substance of my allegations, instead claiming that their behavior counts as 'protected speech.' Secondly, they have not filed the countersuit they had promised to file: instead, they asked the court to stay all discovery and to dismiss our lawsuit."
"For the record, I believe that Rocker and Gradient are misusing California's Anti-SLAPP statute and the claims they have made under it are improper. These motions, which don't deny any of our allegations, are an attempt to prevent us from ever getting discovery or the suit from ever seeing a courtroom and jury. If they had, as threatened, filed a countersuit, we would begin the discovery process. I believe they will do everything in their power to fight discovery. Thus, we expect Gradient and Rocker to continue to try to string this out as long as possible with delaying motions such as the one filed Tuesday. Only when it becomes clear that they cannot avoid court do we expect they will file a countersuit.
"Observers should also take note that the declarations we made public describe Gradient's practice of letting hedge funds order hatchet jobs, permit select clients to review and edit reports before publication, and then front run the research. My question is this: if that is in fact how Gradient and Rocker operate, can all agree that is inappropriate, without dithering over specious claims about the First Amendment? If they will not concede such a minimal standard, I believe the public may begin to see the pernicious effects of their style of 'investing.'"
Overstock.com, Inc. is an online "closeout" retailer offering discount, brand-name merchandise for sale over the Internet. The company offers its customers an opportunity to shop for bargains conveniently, while offering its suppliers an alternative inventory liquidation distribution channel. Overstock.com, headquartered in Salt Lake City, is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ National Market System and can be found online at http://www.overstock.com.
Overstock.com is a registered trademark of Overstock.com, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies.
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 defendants' future attempts to prohibit discovery and delay the legal proceedings, and such other risks as identified in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004, and all our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which contain and identify important factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements.