finance.yahoo.com — Between the two, they have cashed out $5,782,440,068 (yes, that's BILLION with a B) in Google stock over the past year and retain only about 140,000 reported shares between them, valued at $42M total. The question is, why are they getting rid of all their stock???
Sep 21, 2005 View in Crawl 4
matt72186Sep 21, 2005
Why are they offloading all their shares? Why not?If you say anything related to "business ethics" I'm afraid to inform you, the two don't go well together, almost oxymoronic.
behemothaurSep 21, 2005
Me prefer the money. Duh. Especially when the high stock price is not sustainable. Me still run company though so who says can't issue some more stock to me later if still interested.Think around 3 bill may be enough to reinvest in low risk, and build a family empire which reigns at the top of the food chain till the earth floods then move to Uranus. Sorry - Planet Google.
jasonpsimonSep 21, 2005
PROBABLY BECAUSE IT'S WORTH $6 BILLION!!!!
alfawolphSep 21, 2005
because their stock is overpriced and they are cashing out. i would too if it were that high.
lynxproSep 21, 2005
I wouldn't be too worried about it. The money they raised for themselves could also be used to buy start-up companies that Google might be interested in but would draw too much attention if the Google company itself started poking around (like inciting interest from Microsoft or Yahoo to poach the companies first). The guys could then instruct Google to buy out those companies from them or do a stock swap, thereby getting back some of the shares they just cashed out with.These guys don't strike me as trying to make Google into a Broadcast.com, ie. getting lucky based upon a bubble and having nothing really to justify the stock being overvalued. Google is in it for the long run.And as another poster stated, they still have their class B shares, aka "the non-sucker shares". Check out how the Roberts family manipulates the Comcast company even though they own something like less than 30% of the common stock. Their preferred stock allows them full control of the company.
the_dudeSep 21, 2005
Perhaps they own some restricted voting shares of their stock which aren't available at all to regular investors.
chriskzooSep 21, 2005Submitter
"Not 140,000 ? Where did that number come from?"If you click on the names of Brin and Page it tells you the number of remaining shares that they hold. Brin has like 100,000 and Page has like 36,000 (or vice versa). Then goto the Microsoft page and click on Gates to see his 1,000,000,000 shares.
bill_clarkSep 21, 2005
Maybe they're afraid Ballmer's going to "f**king kill Google!" ;)
imathomeSep 22, 2005
dude...they're billionaires. cut 'em some slack. they never have to work again.
jeffersonSep 22, 2005
Im surprised they still show up for work, I sure as hell wouldnt.I'd spend it all on high class hookers and booze.
Closed AccountSep 22, 2005
so what makes selling over inflated stock unethical? i guess they should wait until they can sell it at a loss.. not like that kinda of information isnt publicand adsence is far more than search engine advertising.. just happens to be on a whole lot of pages on the net besides google..as far as i know not many stock advisors have a sell rating for google.i still highly doubt they are doing this soley for the cash.. but i guess they could be buying all that dark fiber for their own personal use to have a great connection no matter where they are..pretty sure they are building the online library just so they dont have to buy books anymore.I am pretty sure both of them spend their spare time killing kittens.i wish Bill would hurry up and buy them and make us all safer.