Patrick Byrne, in his company's latest press release: "I may be the first CEO in history to celebrate receiving an SEC subpoena. Some of the requests suggest the whispering of the blackguards, but I remain unconcerned about their hokum."

You must be kidding.

I'm probably one of a handful of people who has held Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) from $14 all the way up over $70, back down to the $30s, up to the $50s, and all the way down into the $20s again. (OK, I sold once in between, but I've also bought a few times.) I've been generally supportive, and I've held on because the viability of the business model and income statement makes sense to me, and because I still believe the stock is cheap -- even if the timing and the magnitude of prospective earnings may be off by a few years.

But Overstock has been an extremely frustrating company to own. It's not really the volatility with the stock price; it's that every time I turn around, CEO Patrick Byrne has something ridiculous to say.

Consider the following headlines:

Those aren't Motley Fool headlines. They're not Reuters or the Associated Press, either; those are press releases issued by Overstock.com. And I would say that 99.99% of public companies would never issue a press release resembling any of those.

And so, for the most part, I've sat back and locked up my Overstock shares in the safe for the past half-year, trying to ignore the circus and waiting patiently for the cash to roll in. But with this latest press release from Byrne -- in response to receiving an SEC subpoena requesting a "broad range of documents" -- I can't help but think that shareholders would be better off if Byrne just kept his mouth shut.

"Celebrate"?
Byrne's use of the word "celebrate" in relation to receiving an SEC subpoena is both obnoxious and arrogant. He says "celebrate" because he is confident that he'll be proved right all along about naked shorts, FTDs, phantom shares, and research-related market manipulation.

But he's forgetting a couple of other things that matter to shareholders:

1. Overstock's Q1 '06 earnings report was awful. Q4 '05 and Q3 '05 were also awful. Now that I think about it, I can't remember the last time Overstock had a good quarterly report.

2. Last week, the company said that it had issued $25 million worth of stock for sale at $24 per share, then announced on Monday that it would sell $16.8 million worth of stock for $24 per share. But just in the second quarter last year, the company spent $92 million buying back convertible debt and stock at an average price approaching $38 per share. In other words, not only has Byrne fumbled with the business, he has also made mistakes with the company's finances. It makes no sense to spend money buying back stock if you're going to need the cash later -- even if you technically got value on the initial purchase. That the company has since agreed with the would-be purchaser to cancel the second sale is irrelevant.

In reality, there's been nothing to celebrate here, unless you're looking to buy the stock. Byrne uses the word "gratified" in the very next sentence of the press release; couldn't he just have said that and otherwise kept mum? Or even just "announced" that the company had received a subpoena and left it at that?

Mr. Byrne: Quit it!
It's not that I disapprove or disagree with Mr. Byrne's cause; I just find it disturbing how many of Overstock's recent press releases amount to taunting related to Gradient Analytics and short sellers. The obnoxiousness of the releases' content is even worse. I think it gives a bad name to Mr. Byrne, the company, and -- just as importantly -- the shareholders who continue to hang tight.

Overstock's shareholders would be better off if the CEO spent more time on the business and less time on the hokum.

For a 100% Sith Lord-free look at some of the market's best growth stocks, try a free 30-day guest pass to Motley Fool Rule Breakers .

Fool contributor Jeff Hwang owns shares of Overstock.com. The Fool's disclosure policy is strongly opposed to both humbug and bogwash.