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Comment by fnayr | Hacker News Reader

Where's Zuckerberg in all of this? It's strange with all the controversies hitting and the stock crash that he hasn't made any sort of public statement (unless I missed it?).

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> Where's Zuckerberg in all of this?

Working out scheduling for testimony to a UK parliamentary inquiry, a couple US congressional committees, and the US FEC?

More seriously, the question is being asked everywhere, even, apparently, within Facebook: http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/technology/mark-zuckerberg-f...

Is that a question or a statement? If it's a statement, it comes across as pontifical.

> Is that a question or a statement?

Which sentence, the one with the question mark at the end or the other one? The answer is different for each, and which is which should be obvious.

The word pontifical has a pontifical air to it, don't you think?

To answer your question about the question....it ends with a question mark, so it's probably a rhetorical question suggesting that Zuckerberg has his hands full at the moment. I'm sure you've seen the headline about MPs requesting his presence at a hearing.

I bet he tries to avoid this becoming a 'Zuckerberg' story and is more okay with FB declining a few points on its brand perception.

Especially since Zuckerberg has very big plans post Facebook.

what could he say to make you feel better about the whole clusterfuck that's unfolded in the past few days? 'I'm stepping down' is probably the only thing i'd buy.

He's been super busy dumping a whole lot of his Facebook Shares before the Sh*t hit the fan.[1][2]

Sources:

[1] Zuckerberg has sold more Facebook stock in the last 3 months than any insider at any other company => https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/20/zuckerbergs-facebook-stock-s...

[2] Zuckerberg saved tens of millions of dollars by selling Facebook stock ahead of Monday’s decline: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/zuckerberg-saved-tens-of-m...

I have seen that. It doesn't look good for him no doubt. But that equates to less than a billion right? The stock drop alone in the past few days cost him much more than that ($5 billion from one article I read).

So given that he's probably not an idiot, it looks really bad to sell if he thinks it's going to drop, and the money he made from selling is far outweighed by the drop from the controversies, it doesn't seem likely to me that it was because "he knew it was going to drop."

I don't like the guy but my feeling is it was unlucky timing.

As with the intel ceo case, as fb employees we have particular windows when we can sell shares. I don't think Zuck is extempted from this.

The intel ceo case is incriminating because the intel ceo dumped as much stock as contractually allowed by Intel, with the plans to do so being filed well after Intel was informed of the security flaw. It's not incriminating solely because he sold stock (in fact he regularly sold stock that was granted to him, but never this much so quickly).

This stock is still well above where it was a few months ago. I sold my FB at 140 because I felt it was overvalued. I wouldn't blame Zuck for thinking his company was overvalued at its current price.

Such sales are usually coordinated with SEC well in advance. You submit your filing to SEC and sell accordingly during next 365 or 180 days (not sure about timeline, but definitely not a week).

I'm super frustrated with Facebook, but this is conspiracy theory territory. Place the anger in the right direction.

Those trades were part of his 10b5-1, a scheduled trading plan set in place at a minimum 3 months ahead of time and typically extends out 12+ months. Trades in the plan are protected from insider trading accusations and considered an "affirmative defense" [1].

While you can trade shares outside your 10b5-1 plan, those trades aren't protected from insider trading accusations.

[1] https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2016/03/24/a-guide-to-rule-1...

Considering the time scales we're playing with here, 3 months is more than enough time to delay reporting and let 10b5-1 sales trigger to salvage as much value as possible.

Shoot, Stamos had apparently been nagging them for a while leading up to the December reorg, and we're only just hearing about it.

Both links contain facts not stories.

You came up with the idea that there would be a conspiracy. You are the conspiracy theorist.

It's a conspiracy theory to state or insuniate that Zuckerberg is committing a crime in order to save some money.

Especially given that the facts are that (a) selling stock involves a lot of people, (b) Zuckerberg has gone on record saying he will be selling stock, (c) he has plans for politics/philanthropy which will depend on an intact reputation and (d) he will be so rich i.e. multi-billionaire regardless that it seems strange to risk jail time for a few hundred million.

If you make claims. Then you need to back them up.

I didn't make claims nor did anyone else. There's only facts that he's been selling stock.

Can they cancel planned sells though? If so, it seems this would be a great way to get around insider trading laws. Just always have a bunch of sells scheduled, and cancel them if you don't need them.

As other's have mentioned stock sales are planned.

And why is it surprising that Zuckerberg has sold lots of Facebook stock. (1) He owns the most and (2) he has previously gone on record as saying he will be selling stock to finance his charity.

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