20 February 2012 | Author: L Boyd Media Intern
Google chairman Eric Schmidt intends to sell up to 2.4 million shares of his Class A common stock in the company, according to a filing with U.S. regulators.
Experts predict Schmidt's move is part of a predetermined stock trading plan for the Mountain View search giant, as the chairman adopted the Rule 10b5-1 of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - a rule relating to trading on the basis of material non-public information - plan last November.
Selling off the $1.45 billion (£914 million) worth of shares will be Schmidt's biggest ever annual disposal and the first big Google sale in four years. Since Google went public over seven years ago, Schmidt has already parted with 5.7 million shares, but the 2.4 million shares disclosed on Friday is more than a quarter of the chairman's remaining stake.
The official company line is that Schmidt wants to diversity his portfolio.
"The pre-arranged trading plan was adopted in order to allow Eric to sell a portion of his Google stock as part of his long-term strategy for individual asset diversification and liquidity," reads the official SEC report.
"Using this trading plan, Eric can diversify his investment portfolio and can spread stock trades out over a period of one year to reduce market impact."
Schmidt stepped down as Google chief executive last April and the new sale may bring his voting power on Google's stock to around 7.3 per cent, from 9.1 million shares to 6.7 million. It is reported that, despite this, Schmidt still has more than $4 billion (£2.5 billion) of his own money tied up in the company.
Schmidt plans to part with 2.4 million Google shares
Google chairman Eric Schmidt intends to sell up to 2.4 million shares of his Class A common stock in the company, according to a filing with U.S. regulators.Experts predict Schmidt's move is part of a predetermined stock trading plan for the Mountain View search giant, as the chairman adopted the Rule 10b5-1 of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - a rule relating to trading on the basis of material non-public information - plan last November.
Selling off the $1.45 billion (£914 million) worth of shares will be Schmidt's biggest ever annual disposal and the first big Google sale in four years. Since Google went public over seven years ago, Schmidt has already parted with 5.7 million shares, but the 2.4 million shares disclosed on Friday is more than a quarter of the chairman's remaining stake.
The official company line is that Schmidt wants to diversity his portfolio.
"The pre-arranged trading plan was adopted in order to allow Eric to sell a portion of his Google stock as part of his long-term strategy for individual asset diversification and liquidity," reads the official SEC report.
"Using this trading plan, Eric can diversify his investment portfolio and can spread stock trades out over a period of one year to reduce market impact."
Schmidt stepped down as Google chief executive last April and the new sale may bring his voting power on Google's stock to around 7.3 per cent, from 9.1 million shares to 6.7 million. It is reported that, despite this, Schmidt still has more than $4 billion (£2.5 billion) of his own money tied up in the company.
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