[keltex]

I think the comparison with Overstock may be a bit flawed. The president of Overstock, Patrick Byrne, has been at war with Wall Street for a number of years. He blames them for naked short selling (an illegal practice of selling stock short that you haven't borrowed) and is actually suing the "prime brokers" (the ones who handle most of the stock trades):

http://www.overstock.com/Patrick-Byrne/7371/static.html

Thus overstock has been under attack by Wall Street and has an incredible high short interest. 20% of the stock is reported to be sold short, although Patrick thinks, with the unreported naked short selling, that the number is much higher:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=OSTK

[dustingetz]

Can you explain like I'm 5 why wall st's actions on the stock impacts overstock's day to day operations and margins?

[yourapostasy]

NASDAQ: OSTK currently carries zero short- or long-term debt, has no bonds issued, and has no announced plans I am aware of to issue more shares from a quick glance at Google Finance. So current stock price activity won't affect the pricing of those financial instruments, since they simply don't engage in any of those.

However, what you do not see are precisely the daily operational and margin-related activities that don't make it onto the radar screens of Wall St. but do matter to the comptroller or even CFO. Vendors who you purchase goods and services from set payment terms factoring in an evaluation of the share price. Going from Net 90 to Net 30 will impact cash flow. If your share price action alarms someone enough, they may even refuse to do business except for paid-in-advance terms.

The share price also impacts your PR and marketing efforts. More alarming share price activity makes it more expensive to reach your customers; just as there are many fathers to a success story, no one wants to associate with a perceived loser, so your advertising spend per customer will go up to counter negative perceptions while only achieving the same revenue.

Similar dynamics obtain at the sales interface with customers. Your cash and time spend per customer for the same amount of revenue (thus dropping your margins) goes up with greatly negative perceptions incited by adverse share price activity. In the case of Overstock, it is not the b2c customers that watch the share price, but the b2b customers; the partners Overstock sources its inventory from.