“Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is selling roughly 42 percent of his stake in the Internet search company, a move that could potentially net the former chief executive a $2.51 billion windfall,” Alexei Oreskovic reports for Reuters.
“Schmidt, 57, will sell 3.2 million shares of Class A common stock through a stock trading plan, Google said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.,” Oreskovic reports. “The plan, which Google said would give Schmidt ‘individual asset diversification and liquidity,’ allows Schmidt to spread trades out over a period of one year to reduce the market impact.”
Oreskovic reports, “A Google spokeswoman would not comment on why Schmidt is selling the shares at this time. Wedbush Securities analyst James Dix said Schmidt’s stock sales did not worry him or signal a loss of confidence in the company by Schmidt. ‘I’d be more worried if the current CEO or CFO sold a lot of their stake,’ said Dix.”
“The fact that Schmidt will still own a significant amount of shares after the sales means he’ll have a good deal of ‘skin in the Google game,’ said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice. But he said it could hint at Schmidt playing a less central role within the company going forward,” Oreskovic reports. “‘My speculation is that Eric’s relationship with Google is evolving,’ said Rice. ‘I would assume that as he decides he wants to diversify away from Google – both his career and financially – he’s got ideas of what he would like to do with some of his funds.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Tunnel building?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
“Maybe he sold it, cuz, I don’t know, because its 2.51 billion-frikkin’-dollars”
Admit it. You said that in the voice of Dr. Evil.
“Maybe he sold it, cuz, I don’t know, because its 2.51 billion-frikkin’-dollars”
Mmmm..yes, he could bang a diff chick every day for the rest of his life with that kinda dough.
To be serious, Page replaced Schmidt as CEO in 2011, maybe this is just a continuation of the same “invisible demotion”..Eric realizes that both he and GOOG is going downwards and he is smart enough of a mole to know when to cut his losses and run!
…or (as somebody else pointed out) Eric knows (from his early discussions with Steve) that an Apple search engine is afoot sooner than later and he hasn’t told this to Sergey or to Larry ’cause if they would start selling too then his shares would be worth nothing.
Shareholders: elect Wozzie as the next chairman of the Apple board, he would be perfect for that job.
Eric is smart enough to see that GOOG is topping right now and the battle against iOS is getting tougher. One good reason I see him bailing out.
What if Eric Schmidt and Marissa Mayer both saw what was coming at them, from Antitrust violations that could prove co$tly, or from new regulations that would constrain them far more than the piddly losses recently reported? They’d want to move to a more defensible position—a remote island, say, or Switzerland. Let Larry and Sergey rule over a diminished kingdom, and make do with just one private jet instead of 8.
To be fair, The mole realized had as much as Brin and Page combined!