Overstock.com Inc., the Internet seller of discounted brand-name goods, has dropped a lawsuit against research firm Gradient Analytics Inc., which apologized for some of its reports about Overstock.
Overstock sued Gradient in 2005, saying the firm issued false and misleading reports about it using information from Rocker Partners LLC to help the hedge fund benefit from short sales, or bets that Overstock's stock would fall. Gradient said in a statement Monday that some of its reports were wrong.
"Gradient now believes that, to the best of its knowledge, Overstock's stated accounting principles did in fact conform with generally accepted accounting principles and regrets any prior statements to the contrary," Gradient said in a statement.
Details of the settlement were confidential, said Patrick Byrne, chief executive officer at Salt Lake City-based Overstock. Overstock is pursuing its claims against Rocker and its principal, David Rocker, who now runs Red Bank, N.J.-based Copper River Management LLC, Byrne said.