In the past year and a half, Google's top executives have been selling off stock in the company like they were trying to meet ransom demands. Since Feb. 14, 2005, the expiration date of the last restriction on insider sales following Google's IPO, [link|http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=columnist_gilbert&sid=akQ0xe00sEyM|insiders have sold off an astonishing $7.4 billion of stock. ]
- Larry Page: $2 billion
- Sergey Brin: $1.9 billion
- Omid Kordestani: $1.1 billion
- Eric Schmidt: $650 million
- Ram Shriram: $650 million (Director, Investor)
- David Drummond: $200 million
- George Reyes: $200 million
- Jonathan Rosenberg: $200 million
Divestments like these aren't all that surprising. Google executives do need their walking-around money just like everyone else, and a number of these stock sales were automatic, undertaken as part of a predetermined plan. What is surprising is that not one of these execs has purchased a Google share in 18 months. Why not? Why are Google insiders scaling back their investments in a company that's going great guns? \ufffdAny time you see insiders who are strictly selling, the market has to evaluate that," [link|http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=FT&Date=20060818&ID=5958344|Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, told the Financial Times]. "If insiders are selling and not buying, it suggests they have found a place where their assets will appreciate somewhere else.\ufffd
[link|http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/|source]