Why I’m selling some Twitter shares
medium.com
medium.com
“It actually pains me to be selling at this point, but this sale is all about personal context, not company context,” Mr. Williams wrote in a post on Medium, the blogging startup he now runs as chief executive.
Interesting, and 30% would seem to support the notion that it isn't a lack of faith in the company, right? It really does sound like he just needed to be liquid.
On the other hand, why else would someone sell 30% of their stock? It's not unusual for someone to announce a plan for complete divestment (usually over the course of several years, to avoid disrupting the market) - that's what Gates is doing with Microsoft, in fact.
If he's holding on to 70% of his stock, it's not like he thinks Twitter is doomed. And as such a large shareholder and board member, it's not like he's just pretending in bad faith to sell only 30% now, but secretly planning on announcing that he's selling the remainder in another year or two. That would be very illegal, and the SEC would come down on him hard.
I couldn't care if he liquidates 99% of what he has -- what would put me to ease as a shareholder is what is that "personal" reason. Buy a house? New startup? Fight a cancer. Sure, I'm fine... but if that personal reason turns out to be no reason at all, then its a short sign!
@ev runs Medium now, i don't think he's involved in the day-to-day of twitter at all anymore. He's certainly not in charge.
That's easy. A "personal reason" is one that's none of anyone's business ;)
Did you read the article? He very clearly says:
> Here’s the short story: I like to invest a lot in things I care about. For example, I’m the largest LP at Obvious Ventures, which has invested in over 35 world-positive companies. In addition, my wife and I have done a fair amount of philanthropic giving and—especially in the last year—upped our political donations significantly . These are all efforts to help build a smarter, more sustainable world. I’ve been doing all of them for a while, and I’d like to continue. (In the early days, I also funded Medium, but have not in recent years and don’t have any plans to, thanks to awesome investor/partners.)
He's a board member, and will continue to be after the sale. He's not selling because he lacks faith in the direction of the company. He's selling because he needs the cash, and as someone who made most of his fortune off of Twitter, most of his money is tied up in Twitter stock. As a board member[0] and large shareholder, he needs to make a public filing along with that sale.
If he were selling 80% of his stock, or if he were announcing his intention to step down from the board as well, I might agree with you (but also might point you to Bill Gates, who announced his decision to fully divest from Microsoft a while back, in order to fund his foundation's work). But he's selling less than a third of what he owns, and he's clearly remaining involved with the company in a capacity that bears a fiduciary responsibility.
[0] This really cannot be overstated; board members are not merely shareholders, and it's not a liability-free position. If Williams were seriously pessimistic about the future of Twitter as a board member, selling 30% of his shares and doing nothing else would be the most nonsensical way to act on that pessimism.
Personally, I don't question his motives, but you seem assured of something impossible for you to actually know.
It's at least questionable to have waited until Twitter was scraping its all time lows, and then selling a huge chunk of stock. He just learned he might need money yesterday?
It does not put Yahoo's finances in a good shape, though.
If Twitter could slash their expenses drastically, they could be rather profitable. Maybe they could increase their income somehow, too. Likely the same applies to Yahoo, and is equally problematic.
The only reason he posted this piece was to stave off the otherwise-inevitable "Twitter Co-Founder and Board Member Sells a Third of His Stake: Does He Not Believe in the Company?" headlines.
Though his "It actually pains me to be selling at this point" bit in his post is almost certainly to be translated as "I'm disappointed that I have to sell when the stock is in the dumpster".
If he believed in the stock, why not?
> Medium member since Feb 2017