6 ms·
Steve Ballmer sells about $1.3 billion in shares of Microsoft
- aurora72 16y agoIt looks like he no longer sees a bright future, maybe.
- patio11 16y agoLong term capital gains tax cuts sunset after 2010, right? My back of the envelope math is that if he waits one nanosecond after midnight on December 31st he gets to pay Uncle Sam an extra $65 million. I can think of things that I'd rather do with the money -- I'm guessing he can, too. Incentives change behavior.
- redthrowaway 16y agoI'm guessing this will be a common trend in the next couple months.
- staunch 16y agoThen maybe the company should award him $65 million in shares to compensate. Or he should take the hit -- he can certainly afford it. It's not a good time for Microsoft to have the CEO selling such a large stake. It looks like he's leaving and/or doesn't have confidence.
- d2viant 16y agoHim giving the appearance of leaving would not be a bad thing.
- staunch 16y agoWithout a successor it's not great. The devil you know...
- chc 16y agoThe devil we know has managed to take a company so successful that people considered it a threat to the entire industry and bring it to the brink of irrelevance, kept alive only by a nearly automatic revenue stream from entrenched 20-year-old software. An honor-roll high school student stepping in for Ballmer would probably be met with guarded optimism.
- gusf 16y agoThe change in long term capital gains tax is a drop in the bucket relative to the fact that there is no Generation Skipping Transfer Tax (GST) and a low Gift Tax in 2010. I strongly suspect this is cash to pay for gift tax on gifts to his children and grand children. That would be several hundred million in tax savings.
- chailatte 16y agoNot too surprising, considering these past few months insiders have been selling tons of shares. Insider Selling To Buying Update: 2,019 To 1 http://bit.ly/cTZ9uq http://bit.ly/cTZ9uq
- some1else 16y agoExpecting a bad quarter, or bad future? Interesting list and rankings
- RtodaAV 16y agoDon't see a bad quarter happening.
- megablast 16y agoDon't see a bad quarter, they just had record profits, but I do see the stock market losing confidence in Microsoft's ability to grow.
- rbanffy 16y agoWith their main cash cows being Windows and Office, both with close to 100% market share, it's not very reasonable to expect a huge growth.
- Devilboy 16y agoProbably just paying off some gambling debt or something
- Eil 16y agoInsiders sell for all sorts of reasons, it's when they buy that you need to pay attention.
- goalieca 16y agoMicrosoft pays $0.16 in dividends per share per quater and their share price is ~ $27. That's about 2.3% anually. Not bad.. but long term i would bet against microsoft stock.
- icey 16y agoHere is the official statement regarding the stock sale: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/nov10/11-05Statement.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2010/nov10/11-05Sta...
- thought_alarm 16y ago"Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion. I am excited about our new products and the potential for our technology to change people's lives, and I remain fully committed to Microsoft and its success," said Ballmer, from an undisclosed island in the South Pacific.
- abraham 16y agoReuters has a very misleading title: "Microsoft's Ballmer sells 12 percent stake in company". In actuality it is 12% of Ballmer's 4.2%.
- MiguelHudnandez 16y agoHe presumably made the statements to keep the sale from affecting the stock price in a bad light. Ironically, I think the stock may perform better if Ballmer did not claim he was sticking around.
- RBr 16y agoAnyone want to take a bet? My money says he either follows Stephen Elop to Nokia or competes with him at another core mobile company.
- cubicle67 16y agoYou mean Ballmer voluntarily leaving MS to go somewhere else? no way on earth
- Kilimanjaro 16y agoLike a rat deserting a sinking ship?
- bmelton 16y agoThere's a lot of speculation going on, and that's fair, I suppose, but isn't it possible that he just saw a record quarter, and realized that if he were going to cash out some shares, now is a good time?
- ojbyrne 16y agoI suspect there's a lot of people selling shares, just because of the possibility of the tax rate on long term capital gains going up at the end of the year.
- mkramlich 16y agoalright everybody: tonight, drinks are on Ballmer!
- Zaak 16y agohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbH-U2b_EsQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbH-U2b_EsQ
- bhiggins 16y agothis is a good time given the boost that QE2 has given the stock market.
- chadp 16y agohe is a deca billionaire and just in his mid 50s. Great to see.