Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg along with two other key decision makers at the social-media giant took part in Facebook Inc. share sale amounting to millions of dollars this week following the expiry of the restrictions on insider trading.
Sandberg Cashes Out
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was able to net a hefty $7.44 million by selling more than 353,000 shares of Facebook Inc. on the 31st of October as per a filing with the SEC on the 2nd of November. According to the filing, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg still remains the owner of an average of 20 million vested shares of stock related to Facebook Inc., such as the shares she holds in her personal trusts. She has decided recently to convert a part of her restricted stock unites into publicly traded Class A shares.
Theodore Ullyot, the General Counsel of Facebook Inc. and David Spillane, the Chief Accounting Officer of the company also managed to sell shares worth over a million dollars during the course of this week, as is indicated by filings. All the sales carried out by at the social-media giant’s executives belonged to a pre-arranged plan for stock trading.
The Facebook Inc. share sale happens to be one of the first by the senior management team of Facebook Inc. following the high-profile initial public offering of the company back in the month of May. The social-media giant turned out to be the sole company from the US to debut with a new market value greater than $100 billion. However, the company seems to have witnessed its value take a dive by more than 40 percent ever since concerns began to arise about the long-term money making prospects of the site.
The shares of Facebook Inc., which had a price of around $38 in the IPO, ended the normal session on the 2nd of November down by 3 cents to reach $21.18. The large amount of shares of Facebook Inc. set to affect the market as insider dealing in lock-up provisions expire in many phases have increased the burden on the stock of Facebook Inc.
Points of Facebook Trading
Almost a total of 230 million shares of Facebook Inc. have become eligible for trading as of this week, as trading restrictions meant for employees crossed their expiry date. A different set of 800 million shares will become eligible for the purpose of trading on the 14th of the month of November, considerably increasing the float of about 692 million shares of Facebook that were meant for trading as of the 30th of September.
28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive officer at Facebook Inc., has given his word that he will not take part in the Facebook Inc. share sale before the month of September of the following year.
Ullyot managed to sell a bit more than 149,000 shares on the 31st of October and on the 1st of November and was successful in collecting $3.13 million. One of the chief participants of the Facebook Inc. share sale, he possesses an additional 1.27 million in terms of vested shares. Spillane, on the other hand, sold almost 256,000 shares on the 31st of October, which accounted for over half of his total vested shares, for proceeds of almost $5.4 million. The amount of shares sold by him fell short of that of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Spillane held approximately 863,000 shares, even unvested shares, as stated by a filing in the month of May.
