It was a naked attempt to draw attention to his company -- and it worked. Mark Breier showed up for a 6 a.m. interview on CNBC wearing nothing but a grin and a pair of boxer shorts. The CEO of online software vendor Beyond.com, Breier, '81, MBA '85, explained that he was just trying to "expose the power of digital downloading."
Media outlets in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, London -- even Kuala Lumpur -- reported on the, uh, brief appearance in June, which was broadcast from a satellite-linked studio at Stanford (the facility closest to Beyond.com's Sunnyvale headquarters). The stunt played off the company's TV ad campaign, which shows a guy working at home in the nude -- to the chagrin of neighbors and the package delivery man.
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound Breier clearly enjoyed sitting shirtless, holding a lapel microphone in his hand while being quizzed about software in front of the 407,000 viewers of CNBC's "Squawk Box." "I'm no Atlas," says Breier, who stays in shape playing basketball three days a week. "But that's all part of the fun."
