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Report: Overstock.com May Spin Off Digital Currency Business
August 11,
2017 by Larry Thomas in Business Strategy, Economic News, Industry
E-commerce powerhouse Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) may spin off Medici Ventures, its money-losing unit that supports trading platforms for digital currencies such as Bitcoin, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
The Bloomberg story quoted Overstock executive Jonathan Johnson as saying the retailer sees Medici “eventually becoming a standalone” because its business model is so different from Overstock.
Johnson told Bloomberg the company has hired “bankers and lawyers” to explore strategic alternatives, and said the Medici spin-off isn’t likely to occur until 2018.
Overstock reported a pre-tax loss of $3.3 million for the Medici unit in the second quarter, and the business has never shown a profit. Overstock’s retail business had a second quarter pre-tax loss of $6.4 million, but that business had been profitable in several previous quarters.
To read the Bloomberg story, click here.