Twitter Co-Founder Ev Williams Is Selling 30 Percent of His Stock For 'Personal' Reasons (recode.net) 42
The co-founder and current board member of Twitter, Ev Williams, said today that he plans to sell a "minority of [his] TWTR" stock over the next year, and doesn't plan to sell "more than 30 percent" of his holdings. Williams is the company's largest individual shareholder, so his recent announcement may make some investors worried. However, Twitter stock was only down less than 1 percent Thursday following this news. Recode reports: Williams was careful to say the sale was for "personal" reasons, not company performance reasons. Twitter's stock is down more than 15 percent over the past three months. Williams explained the sale in a blog post, and wrote that he has spent a lot of money investing through his venture fund, Obvious Ventures, and also donated a lot to charity and political campaigns over the past year. "I'd like to continue," he added. Williams sold about $4 million in stock this week, according to an SEC filing, and has set up a 10b5-1 trading plan, which means he'll sell at pre-determined dates moving forward to avoid any concerns over insider trading.
kinda sounds like a Godfather quote (Score:2)
heh (Score:5, Insightful)
diversify (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd assume his Twitter holdings account for vast majority of his net worth and it is only prudent to diversify. Many executives sell shares in companies they work at for this exact reason. Even if the company is sound. Don't be like Enron employees who invested everything on company stocks and were left with nothing. No job and no savings.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget he was also a cofounder at Pyra, so he has all of that filthy Google lucre as well.
Re: (Score:2)
We you say you will sell thirty percent, you will sell thirty percent. When you say you 'PLAN' to sell thirty percent, you well sell just as much as you fucking can as fast as you fucking can, well, duh, you simply revised your plan. Using that word 'plan' is a red flag for much greater sales, say the plan is to bail on Twitter.
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Wallstreet knows it. That's why the IPO failed. Their execs know it. Users will continue to use the pl
Tech news headline: (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Riiiight (Score:1)
Getting out (Score:1)
While he can, before it all tanks.
Re: (Score:2)
Political Campaign Donations (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's an out-of-the-box theory (Score:3)
Maybe he wants to buy some stuff?
How much is that? (Score:2)
How much are we talking about here? One million dollars? A billion? 10 billion?
He currently owns about 45 million shares. 30% of that is about 14 million. At about $14/share, that's roughly $200 million.
His 45 million shares amount to 7% of Twitter, so we're talking about 2% of the company changing hands.
Personally, I would too (Score:2)
Personal Reasons = He wants his cash
Personal as in "personal finance" (Score:2)
I would too (Score:2)
If I had overvalued stock, I would sell it for personal reasons too. Personal masseuse, personal chaffeur, etc.
You don't have those things when reality catches up and your stock plummets loses over 90% of its value.
It's time to fold and ante into a new game.
"personal" (Score:2)