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Marc Andreessen Sold 73 Percent of His Facebook Stock in the Last Two Weeks

106 points by techaddict009 11y ago

marvel_boy 11y ago
This certainly catches the eye. Any reason to sell now?
- RyanZAG 11y ago
  Facebook hit his personal target of $100
- purpled_haze 11y ago
  He's not the only one who has been cashing out over the last months. In my opinion, it looks like we are in for a correction if you look at the long-term historic logarithmic graph of the S&P 500's value. http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^GSPC+Interactive#{%22useLogScale%22:true,%22range%22:%22max%22,%22allowChartStacking%22:true} http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^GSPC+Interactive#{%22use... As Warren Buffet says, "Buy low. Sell high." Macrotrends affect stocks as a whole, which affect public companies, which affect advertising budgets, which influences Facebook's income. I've been bitten before by assuming a bear market, pulling out, and then seeing things recover, so I'm much more careful now and have not completely pulled out. Large investors that really don't need those extra boatloads of gold they might get if they miss an upswing have been pulling out, though, to avoid risk.
  - leeleelee 11y ago
    n=2 in your analysis...don't be fooled by randomness
  - allannienhuis 11y ago
    "He's not the only one who has been cashing out over the last months." For every seller, there's a buyer. The buyers of his stock aren't the only ones investing in FB stock over the last months.
mark_l_watson 11y ago
He is probably getting money together for that motor home he has been wanting to buy. Seriously, he probably wants liquid cash to do what I guess he most enjoys: investing in new companies. Sorry if this is really off topic, but I think that it is most interesting to understand what people really enjoy in life. I like to ask people what their hobbies are before asking them what they do for a living. Marc Andreesen strikes me as the kind of guy who likes to be in the game, startup wise.
- techaddict009 11y ago
  Any details about his motor home?
  - hyperbovine 11y ago
    Whoosh.
    - dang 11y ago
      Please don't do this here.
  - austenallred 11y ago
    The one that he'll buy with the money he makes when he sells his Facebook stock? Let's just say it's a really nice one.
hackaflocka 11y ago
Por moi, his Tweetstorms, and his Twitter feed, might be the most educationally beneficial thing I've experienced in my adult life (in addition to Nassim Taleb's Twitter). If you're reading this pmarca: thank you. Hope he invests in Twitter to keep it alive.
- mark_l_watson 11y ago
  Thanks for the advice. I just started following Marc Andreesen and Nassim Taleb also.
  - hackaflocka 11y ago
    The thing about Twitter is that you've got to be very selective in whom you follow because you can quickly get overwhelmed with the quantity of Tweets. Use Lists to separate subject matter. Another very good follow is Paul Graham (the founder of Hacker News and Y Comb.).
    - Multiplayer 11y ago
      I wish PG would separate his political discussions to a different handle. It's jarring to be reading his amazing perspectives on the startup world and then see his political posts which I generally don't agree with. Makes me sad.
      - clamprecht 11y ago
        I, on the other hand, wish PG could be as effective on his political views as he is with startups.
    - bkjelden 11y ago
      Paul Graham is a great follow and his signal to noise ratio is much higher than pmarca. Also, Graham's tweets about his kids are adorable. Sam Altman is a good follow too.
      - 11y ago
csmajorfive 11y ago
Anyone speculating on this should look into the mechanics of 10b51 plans. He made no active decision to sell or not sell. The sale may have been triggered by a price floor ($100?) that he must've established a very long time ago.
xpose2000 11y ago
The impressive thing is that he waited until FB was over $100 to sell. Facebook was faced with a huge uphill battle with Wall Street. Each time they had solid earnings, the stock would go down on fears of young people not using the service or their inability to monetize mobile properly or that they overpaid for Instagram. Wall Street finally caught on that it is a social network in a league of their own and a company that makes solid decisions, but it took a long time and Marc could have easily sold along the way. Andreessen stuck through all of that to make it to $100+. It seems like he felt like it was time to cash in. Rightfully so. FB will be just fine moving forward.
- DeBraid 11y ago
  Some good stories related to this via Chris Sacca on TWIS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4ezQrTqFw&ab_channel=ThisWeekInStartups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4ezQrTqFw&ab_channel=ThisW... Essentially Zuckerberg treated the IPO process with contempt, was cavalier and unorthodox, offending many Wall Streeters. 'The Hoodie' legend exploded during this period, as did perception that Facebook was hopeless on mobile AND had poor leadership. Both turned out to be false, as FB post-2012 found a way to monetize mobile and Zuckerberg grew into his role as CEO, now telling jokes in Chinese and managing the press more effectively.
- jonknee 11y ago
  > The impressive thing is that he waited until FB was over $100 to sell. That would be impressive for a dev who had 99% of her net worth in Facebook stock, but for someone who is already cash wealthy and a paper billionaire, it's much less impressive.
  - javajosh 11y ago
    a) How do you know he's cash wealthy? (How could anyone know this, except Marc himself?), and b) Why is patiently holding something, then selling it when you said you would "not impressive", and why does his wealth have to do with the quality of a decision?
    - 11y ago
icedchai 11y ago
I bought at 33 and am still holding.
Eleutheria 11y ago
Peak Facebook they call it. We already passed that mark long ago.
- tedunangst 11y ago
  Nah, all those shorts at $25 are going to payoff big someday...
dctoedt 11y ago
Andreesen is a board member, so under Facebook's insider-trading policy he is required to conduct sales under a Rule 10b5-1 plan [1]. From FB's most recent annual proxy statement [2]: "Certain of our directors and executive officers have adopted written plans, known as Rule 10b5-1 plans, in which they will contract with a broker to buy or sell shares of our common stock on a periodic basis. Under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a broker executes trades pursuant to parameters established by the director or executive officer when entering into the plan, without further direction from them. The director or executive officer may amend or terminate the plan in specified circumstances. Our executive officers and directors are required to conduct all purchase or sale transactions under a Rule 10b5-1 plan." (Emphasis added.) "A company making such disclosure [that an insider has adopted a 10b5-1 plan] generally will disclose the existence of a plan but not the specific details." [3] [1] Form 4 reporting Andreesen's sale: http://investor.fb.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1127602-15-30479&CIK=1326801 http://investor.fb.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1127602-15-304... [2] http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000132680115000019/facebook2015proxystatement.htm http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/00013268011... [3] http://media.mofo.com/files/Uploads/Images/FAQ10b51.pdf http://media.mofo.com/files/Uploads/Images/FAQ10b51.pdf ("MoFo" is Morrison & Foerster, a leading Bay-Area BigLaw firm.)
- bendykstra 11y ago
  > The director or executive officer may amend or terminate the plan in specified circumstances. Under this system, would it be possible to contract with two brokers, telling one to sell shares and the other to buy the same amount? If so, should you learn useful information later, you could terminate one plan, putting the information to use immediately.
  - cbhl 11y ago
    Frequently modifying or cancelling 10b5-1 plans is itself usually forbidden under insider-trading policies, precisely for this reason.
  - csmajorfive 11y ago
    You can't terminate or amend (or even start) a plan without a cooling off period. So any information you'd like to act on will likely be priced in by the time you can take any legal action. Also, you can't have two plans. A modification requires a suspension of all trading.
wslh 11y ago
Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10548690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10548690
danmaz74 11y ago
> It’s a ton of money, and it’s not very common for executives to sell at the pace and quantity that Andreessen has been selling these past two week. Is a member of the board of directors an "executive"? I didn't think that was the case.
mondras 11y ago
This might have something to do with the Fed raising interest rates, all stocks will take a hit.
csense 11y ago
I don't think this is all that surprising. Basically you want your wealth in a balanced portfolio of different companies, so that a downturn in a single company's fortune doesn't affect you. Thus, a big win should be cashed out, otherwise it ends up being too a large a piece of your portfolio.

106 points by techaddict009 11y ago

marvel_boy 11y ago

This certainly catches the eye. Any reason to sell now?

RyanZAG 11y ago
Facebook hit his personal target of $100
purpled_haze 11y ago
He's not the only one who has been cashing out over the last months. In my opinion, it looks like we are in for a correction if you look at the long-term historic logarithmic graph of the S&P 500's value. http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^GSPC+Interactive#{%22useLogScale%22:true,%22range%22:%22max%22,%22allowChartStacking%22:true} http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^GSPC+Interactive#{%22use... As Warren Buffet says, "Buy low. Sell high." Macrotrends affect stocks as a whole, which affect public companies, which affect advertising budgets, which influences Facebook's income. I've been bitten before by assuming a bear market, pulling out, and then seeing things recover, so I'm much more careful now and have not completely pulled out. Large investors that really don't need those extra boatloads of gold they might get if they miss an upswing have been pulling out, though, to avoid risk.
- leeleelee 11y ago
  n=2 in your analysis...don't be fooled by randomness
- allannienhuis 11y ago
  "He's not the only one who has been cashing out over the last months." For every seller, there's a buyer. The buyers of his stock aren't the only ones investing in FB stock over the last months.

mark_l_watson 11y ago

He is probably getting money together for that motor home he has been wanting to buy. Seriously, he probably wants liquid cash to do what I guess he most enjoys: investing in new companies. Sorry if this is really off topic, but I think that it is most interesting to understand what people really enjoy in life. I like to ask people what their hobbies are before asking them what they do for a living. Marc Andreesen strikes me as the kind of guy who likes to be in the game, startup wise.

techaddict009 11y ago
Any details about his motor home?
- hyperbovine 11y ago
  Whoosh.
  - dang 11y ago
    Please don't do this here.
- austenallred 11y ago
  The one that he'll buy with the money he makes when he sells his Facebook stock? Let's just say it's a really nice one.

hackaflocka 11y ago

Por moi, his Tweetstorms, and his Twitter feed, might be the most educationally beneficial thing I've experienced in my adult life (in addition to Nassim Taleb's Twitter). If you're reading this pmarca: thank you. Hope he invests in Twitter to keep it alive.

mark_l_watson 11y ago
Thanks for the advice. I just started following Marc Andreesen and Nassim Taleb also.
- hackaflocka 11y ago
  The thing about Twitter is that you've got to be very selective in whom you follow because you can quickly get overwhelmed with the quantity of Tweets. Use Lists to separate subject matter. Another very good follow is Paul Graham (the founder of Hacker News and Y Comb.).
  - Multiplayer 11y ago
    I wish PG would separate his political discussions to a different handle. It's jarring to be reading his amazing perspectives on the startup world and then see his political posts which I generally don't agree with. Makes me sad.
    - clamprecht 11y ago
      I, on the other hand, wish PG could be as effective on his political views as he is with startups.
  - bkjelden 11y ago
    Paul Graham is a great follow and his signal to noise ratio is much higher than pmarca. Also, Graham's tweets about his kids are adorable. Sam Altman is a good follow too.
    - 11y ago

csmajorfive 11y ago

Anyone speculating on this should look into the mechanics of 10b51 plans. He made no active decision to sell or not sell. The sale may have been triggered by a price floor ($100?) that he must've established a very long time ago.

xpose2000 11y ago

The impressive thing is that he waited until FB was over $100 to sell. Facebook was faced with a huge uphill battle with Wall Street. Each time they had solid earnings, the stock would go down on fears of young people not using the service or their inability to monetize mobile properly or that they overpaid for Instagram. Wall Street finally caught on that it is a social network in a league of their own and a company that makes solid decisions, but it took a long time and Marc could have easily sold along the way. Andreessen stuck through all of that to make it to $100+. It seems like he felt like it was time to cash in. Rightfully so. FB will be just fine moving forward.

DeBraid 11y ago
Some good stories related to this via Chris Sacca on TWIS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4ezQrTqFw&ab_channel=ThisWeekInStartups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK4ezQrTqFw&ab_channel=ThisW... Essentially Zuckerberg treated the IPO process with contempt, was cavalier and unorthodox, offending many Wall Streeters. 'The Hoodie' legend exploded during this period, as did perception that Facebook was hopeless on mobile AND had poor leadership. Both turned out to be false, as FB post-2012 found a way to monetize mobile and Zuckerberg grew into his role as CEO, now telling jokes in Chinese and managing the press more effectively.
jonknee 11y ago
> The impressive thing is that he waited until FB was over $100 to sell. That would be impressive for a dev who had 99% of her net worth in Facebook stock, but for someone who is already cash wealthy and a paper billionaire, it's much less impressive.
- javajosh 11y ago
  a) How do you know he's cash wealthy? (How could anyone know this, except Marc himself?), and b) Why is patiently holding something, then selling it when you said you would "not impressive", and why does his wealth have to do with the quality of a decision?
  - 11y ago

icedchai 11y ago

I bought at 33 and am still holding.

Eleutheria 11y ago

Peak Facebook they call it. We already passed that mark long ago.

tedunangst 11y ago
Nah, all those shorts at $25 are going to payoff big someday...

dctoedt 11y ago

Andreesen is a board member, so under Facebook's insider-trading policy he is required to conduct sales under a Rule 10b5-1 plan [1]. From FB's most recent annual proxy statement [2]: "Certain of our directors and executive officers have adopted written plans, known as Rule 10b5-1 plans, in which they will contract with a broker to buy or sell shares of our common stock on a periodic basis. Under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, a broker executes trades pursuant to parameters established by the director or executive officer when entering into the plan, without further direction from them. The director or executive officer may amend or terminate the plan in specified circumstances. Our executive officers and directors are required to conduct all purchase or sale transactions under a Rule 10b5-1 plan." (Emphasis added.) "A company making such disclosure [that an insider has adopted a 10b5-1 plan] generally will disclose the existence of a plan but not the specific details." [3] [1] Form 4 reporting Andreesen's sale: http://investor.fb.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1127602-15-30479&CIK=1326801 http://investor.fb.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1127602-15-304... [2] http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000132680115000019/facebook2015proxystatement.htm http://edgar.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/00013268011... [3] http://media.mofo.com/files/Uploads/Images/FAQ10b51.pdf http://media.mofo.com/files/Uploads/Images/FAQ10b51.pdf ("MoFo" is Morrison & Foerster, a leading Bay-Area BigLaw firm.)

bendykstra 11y ago
> The director or executive officer may amend or terminate the plan in specified circumstances. Under this system, would it be possible to contract with two brokers, telling one to sell shares and the other to buy the same amount? If so, should you learn useful information later, you could terminate one plan, putting the information to use immediately.
- cbhl 11y ago
  Frequently modifying or cancelling 10b5-1 plans is itself usually forbidden under insider-trading policies, precisely for this reason.
- csmajorfive 11y ago
  You can't terminate or amend (or even start) a plan without a cooling off period. So any information you'd like to act on will likely be priced in by the time you can take any legal action. Also, you can't have two plans. A modification requires a suspension of all trading.

wslh 11y ago

Previous: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10548690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10548690

danmaz74 11y ago

> It’s a ton of money, and it’s not very common for executives to sell at the pace and quantity that Andreessen has been selling these past two week. Is a member of the board of directors an "executive"? I didn't think that was the case.

mondras 11y ago

This might have something to do with the Fed raising interest rates, all stocks will take a hit.

csense 11y ago

I don't think this is all that surprising. Basically you want your wealth in a balanced portfolio of different companies, so that a downturn in a single company's fortune doesn't affect you. Thus, a big win should be cashed out, otherwise it ends up being too a large a piece of your portfolio.