What happened
Shares of Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK 1.14%) fell 9.4% today after the e-commerce and blockchain technology specialist canceled a proposed public stock offering.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
In a press release this morning, however, Overstock President Saum Noursalehi stated:
While we were pleased with the high level of interest shown in our offering, it was intended to be an opportunistic financing. Given the market volatility and price, we are terminating the offering. We continue to pursue other strategic options.
To be sure, shares of Overstock had already declined more than 20% in the four trading days following its initial proposal, making the offering a much less enticing way to raise cash.
Now what
The offering was also a curious move at first glance considering Overstock shares were still reeling after the company not only posted disappointing fiscal fourth-quarter results a few weeks ago, but also warned of a new SEC investigation into its planned tZERO security token offering.
Overstock noted at the time that it continues to seek strategic alternatives for its e-commerce business, including a potential sale of the segment. But in the meantime -- and this helps explain why it may have been seeking new capital -- CEO Patrick Byrne stated that Overstock would finally adopt "the classic internet 'growth strategy'" used by many of its margin-pressing competitors to increase e-commerce revenue and take market share while forsaking bottom-line profits.
In any case, with Overstock's attempt to secure "opportunistic financing" effectively failing, it's no surprise to see investors taking another step back from the company today.
