Google Bigwigs File To Sell Stock
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as CEO Eric Schmidt, filed yesterday with the SEC to sell a portion of their stock. Currently, the three own 90.5 million shares, equal to 33% of the stock and 45.7% of the voting power. Larry and Sergey will divest themselves of 7.2 million shares apiece, and Eric will sell 2.2 million shares, leaving the three with 73.9 million shares, 27% of the total and 40.4% of the voting power. According to HeraldNet, this would generate over $1.2 billion for each of the founders, and over $373 million for CEO Schmidt. The stock is being sold under an automated trading program, which is where a major executive agrees, confidentially, to sell shares at a specific time, thus ensuring that stockholders won't question the timing of the sale. The program was agreed on back in mid-September. Still, Dan Gillmor says, "There's more than a whiff of greed in these sales. Regrettable."
- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 11/20/2004 08:23:00 PM