Ballmer sells $1.3B Microsoft stock

For years, Bill Gates has been selling millions of shares of his Microsoft stock every month. Now Steve Ballmer confirmed he's sold $1.3 Billion and plans to sell another 75 million by year's end.

Despite his faith in the company, no one sells that much stock thinking the value is going to go up.

 

Maybe they need funds for pet projects like 'how to download my conciousness into the internet and live forever'.

 

Even may be they may have some kind of secret plans

 

The sale of stocks had nothing to do with the faith in the company - more to maximise the profit in selling the stocks now as Washington's Initiative, I-1098 was just defeated.

Microsoft's role in the defeat of that Initiative however with the sale of the shares does lead to some questions.

 

That's what Ballmer said but he said it had nothing to do with his lack of faith in the company.

If that were the case then everyone would be doing it but this is the first I've heard of that initiative. In any case, neither Ballmer nor the financial press said the initiative is the cause either.

 

May want to take a look at the link I put in my original post. Three days after the Initiative got defeated, Ballmer announced the selling of those 75M shares which will net him $2Billion tax-free.

http://business.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978672400

 

Your article also states that the incentive hurts corporations. Ballmer is not a corporation and he says he sold stock for personal financial reasons. Reuters and the Wall Street Journal think it's because he's being given the boot.

 

I wonder how this will affect the traders after the opening bell tomorrow morning...

 

The Initiative was not corporate specific. Note that my replies have been to your original post - He sold for pure individual profit; nothing relating to future stock values etc.

I had a look at WSJ and Reuters - nothing was mentioned about him being given the boot. I may have looked at some older stuff though - could you give the links to the relevant articles please?

 

I'm predicting a big drop in price for MS tomorrow. The last time I saw that happen was with DGIT which fell from 42 to 15 within days of the top two officers selling.

Another point about Ballmer selling for tax reasons, if that were true, why didn't Gates and others sell also? Keep in mind that Ray Ozzie just quit and left a letter of doom for MS. Someone is calling this the big rats deserting the sinking ship.

 

the first paragraph says it would tax corporations and that's why they fought it.

if he wanted to sell for profit, why is he selling for the first time ever when the price was about $10 higher a few months ago? This doesn't make sense.

talk of his exit has been in all the financials since before earnings last week as I think I linked to in other threads.

 

Its just a stupid amount of money

 

This was a SMART A$$ MOVE for him!

Microsoft is BOOMING right now with Bing, Yahoo, & FaceBook and has gone wild doing TV advertising all across the US!

It has risen dramatically and if any time is the time to sell a stock, now is the time. It's doing the best it's done in almost a decade! Would you want to risk a stock that size when the company is finally doing so good to drop in value? I sure as hell not. He didn't buy it for anything near what he sold it for.

Good move on his part.

 

uh, when you don't read the financials, I wouldn't make such I'll-informed statements. MS loses money on Bing and Yahoo.

you dont know how to read stock charts either. Microsoft stock was $10 higher just a few months ago and was far higher a decade ago.

Again, you shouldn't make statements about things you know nothing about. And boldfacing your replies is not too smart either.

 

The Initiative was actually to tax those earning more than $200K.

Oddly enough it may have been because of the Initiative. If it had passed, he may have had to pay tax on all earning for this financial year (this was my understanding though I could be wrong - someone who knows US tax laws may be able to give more info). A wakeup call for lack of a better term.

I was referring to your earlier statement about why he sold:

 

First off he hasn't sold stock in the company for the last 7 years and second if the Bush tax cuts expire and capital gain taxes go up, and stock sales he makes next year will see more taken away in taxes

 

Probably just diversifying to protect himself against inflation. The FED also announced they were creating more money out of thin area. So it makes perfect sense for Ballmer to sell stock. Not the best news for MS but they'll quickly recoup any drops in the share price.

 

major institutional investors selling off Microsoft shares.

 

While worthy of a new thread, it is not directly relevant to the OP. The following link shows some good reasons behind the sale as well:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010...-in-some-microsoft-chips-nothing-to-see-here/

 

It IS significant. Institutions drive a stock price, not individuals. Even Ballmer's huge sell off didn't budge the price as negatively as I thought it would. His sale isn't what I thought would do it but how investors would react to it. The first mark of a good or bad stock's future is how many top institutions invest in it. A pullout like this shows lack of support.