6 ms·
Why I’m selling some Twitter shares
- tsycho 10y agoStock sales by executives is normally not a big deal, but 30% is a pretty large number, especially when TWTR is at a pretty depressed price at the moment. Then again, if he needed the cash, the low stock price increases the amount of stock he needed to sell.
- creaghpatr 10y agoHe could write off the loss for tax purpsoses. But I doubt that would make financial sense unless he thinks twitter is screwed. They could get bought out for a premium share price but who knows.
- benmanns 10y agoI don't think so. His shares likely have a basis of essentially $0, so he'll pay less taxes on the sale, but only because he's making less money. There's almost never a reason to turn down real income/growth to save a (less than 100%) percentage of that on taxes.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- vierja 10y agoEvan Williams' post on the sale: https://medium.com/@ev/why-im-selling-some-twitter-shares-e5b81386a796 https://medium.com/@ev/why-im-selling-some-twitter-shares-e5...
- askafriend 10y agoWhether you believe his reasoning or not, I think it's an entirely valid reason to sell. He needed cash, his entire liquidity is in $TWTR. What else is he going to do if he needs personal cash, take a loan?
- aianus 10y ago> What else is he going to do if he needs personal cash, take a loan? If he believed in the stock, why not?
- Vinalin 10y agoYou could still run into issues. Imagine twitter stock crashed and you took out a large loan, you're still on the hook for that amount and now you don't have any assets. I would also assume that the ventures that he claims to be going into (charitable donations/VC funding) would require you to have the assets in hand.
- dang 10y agoThanks; changed to that from https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-co-founder-evan-williams-to-sell-30-of-his-stock-1491506749 https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-co-founder-evan-william....
- M_Grey 10y agoMr. Williams, Twitter’s largest individual shareholder with a 6% stake, cited personal reasons for the selling plan, which kicked off Monday. He said he plans to remain on the company’s board and then keep the “vast majority of my assets” tied up in Twitter shares. “It actually pains me to be selling at this point, but this sale is all about personal context, not company context,” Mr. Williams wrote in a post on Medium, the blogging startup he now runs as chief executive. Interesting, and 30% would seem to support the notion that it isn't a lack of faith in the company, right? It really does sound like he just needed to be liquid.
- dexterdog 10y agoWhat else would he say since he still owns a ton of stock even after the sale?
- chimeracoder 10y ago> What else would he say since he still owns a ton of stock even after the sale? On the other hand, why else would someone sell 30% of their stock? It's not unusual for someone to announce a plan for complete divestment (usually over the course of several years, to avoid disrupting the market) - that's what Gates is doing with Microsoft, in fact. If he's holding on to 70% of his stock, it's not like he thinks Twitter is doomed. And as such a large shareholder and board member, it's not like he's just pretending in bad faith to sell only 30% now, but secretly planning on announcing that he's selling the remainder in another year or two. That would be very illegal, and the SEC would come down on him hard.
- poikniok 10y agoHow exactly would that work? He would just say in a year or two that he decided out of the blue to sell the remainder, and how are you going to prove otherwise?
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- GiorgioG 10y agoI'm surprised he waited this long. Twitter's dead and their management doesn't even know it. Yes, it will limp along the same way Yahoo did and eventually they will find a suitor to sell to at a very low, low price.
- chimeracoder 10y ago> I'm surprised he waited this long. Twitter's dead and their management doesn't even know it. He's a board member, and will continue to be after the sale. He's not selling because he lacks faith in the direction of the company. He's selling because he needs the cash, and as someone who made most of his fortune off of Twitter, most of his money is tied up in Twitter stock. As a board member[0] and large shareholder, he needs to make a public filing along with that sale. If he were selling 80% of his stock, or if he were announcing his intention to step down from the board as well, I might agree with you (but also might point you to Bill Gates, who announced his decision to fully divest from Microsoft a while back, in order to fund his foundation's work). But he's selling less than a third of what he owns, and he's clearly remaining involved with the company in a capacity that bears a fiduciary responsibility. [0] This really cannot be overstated; board members are not merely shareholders, and it's not a liability-free position. If Williams were seriously pessimistic about the future of Twitter as a board member, selling 30% of his shares and doing nothing else would be the most nonsensical way to act on that pessimism.
- bigtimeidiot 10y ago>He's not selling because he lacks faith in the direction of the company Personally, I don't question his motives, but you seem assured of something impossible for you to actually know. It's at least questionable to have waited until Twitter was scraping its all time lows, and then selling a huge chunk of stock. He just learned he might need money yesterday?
- swah 10y agoWhere is this feeling coming from? There's only fb, twitter & instagram, no? I'm not seeing people using their phones less..
- golemotron 10y agoGiven the title it's amazing that he never actually explains why he's selling.
- kelnos 10y agoI think it's pretty clear: he's selling so he can invest in do-good-things-for-the-world causes. It's understandable that he didn't care to name the specific recipients of the funds he'd get from the sale; that's no one's business as of now. The only reason he posted this piece was to stave off the otherwise-inevitable "Twitter Co-Founder and Board Member Sells a Third of His Stake: Does He Not Believe in the Company?" headlines. Though his "It actually pains me to be selling at this point" bit in his post is almost certainly to be translated as "I'm disappointed that I have to sell when the stock is in the dumpster".
- mikeryan 10y agoI thought he pretty clearly explained he wanted it to fund other investments and charitable giving?
- golemotron 10y agoHe alludes to a reason rather than saying it is the reason. That is the tell. He is not being completely forthright.
- maxxxxx 10y agoSounds a little like the usual "I want to spend more time with my family" explanation when someone leaves
- boomboomsubban 10y agoWanting to spread your investment is a normal concept, as is keeping your investments secret.
- mikeryan 10y agoHe's got a VC fund called Obvious (mentioned in the post). If you want to know more details their portfolio is listed here: https://obvious.com/portfolio https://obvious.com/portfolio
- skilled 10y agoHmm, what's with the snarky message behind political donations? "World positive", and "World change", it's absolutely awful how far these "established" entrepreneurs need to distance themselves from a comfortable level of empathy, to be able to convey their reasoning behind needing to do something; such as unloading shares, granted for a company that isn't really doing all that well. (Hence the language used in the post!)
- xemdetia 10y agoI kind of like this simple explanation 'because I like money.'
- ageek123 10y agoActually I read it more as "so I can donate to political causes to fight Donald Trump."
- cridenour 10y agoI'm curious why his profile says > Medium member since Feb 2017
- bearcobra 10y agoThey launched a subscription service which they call memberships last month. If you subscribe your profile gets that style badge.
- douche 10y agoMissed the boat, unfortunately. Selling at the height of the hype cycle eould have been much better.
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- nodesocket 10y agoSelling at a record low price for Twitter is probably not the most financially sound logic.
- kyleblarson 10y agoNeither is having ~90+% of your net worth in a single, highly volatile equity.