http://content.usatoday.com/communit...osoft-shares/1
Microsoft stock statistics show that there are 8.56 Billion outstanding shares. Ballmer's 75M shares amounts to only 0.88% of the outstanding shares. Will that be enough to trigger a decline in the MS stock value? Time will tell.
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Ballmer announced last Friday that he is in the process of unloading up to 18% of his Microsoft shares. He's already sold 12%, for $1.3 billion. "Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion," Ballmer says in a statement. "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."
Bill Smead, CEO of Smead Capital Management, which owns a large block of Microsoft shares, says Ballmer's professed excitement rings hollow. "It indicates he's a coward. You run around the country telling everybody how great your new products are, and then you call your broker and sell your stock," he says. Smead says he does not plan to buy anymore Microsoft shares as long as Ballmer is CEO.
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Still, it raises questions any time an executive sells stock in his or her company. "When the captain is offloading his shares in the name of diversifying his personal portfolio, why should investors hold on to the stock?" says Trip Chowdhry, co-founder and principal analyst at Global Equities Research. "People are going to think 2011 isn't going to be any better than 2010, and that it is likely to be worse."
Ballmer announced last Friday that he is in the process of unloading up to 18% of his Microsoft shares. He's already sold 12%, for $1.3 billion. "Even though this is a personal financial matter, I want to be clear about this to avoid any confusion," Ballmer says in a statement. "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."
Bill Smead, CEO of Smead Capital Management, which owns a large block of Microsoft shares, says Ballmer's professed excitement rings hollow. "It indicates he's a coward. You run around the country telling everybody how great your new products are, and then you call your broker and sell your stock," he says. Smead says he does not plan to buy anymore Microsoft shares as long as Ballmer is CEO.
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Still, it raises questions any time an executive sells stock in his or her company. "When the captain is offloading his shares in the name of diversifying his personal portfolio, why should investors hold on to the stock?" says Trip Chowdhry, co-founder and principal analyst at Global Equities Research. "People are going to think 2011 isn't going to be any better than 2010, and that it is likely to be worse."
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