Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/05/facebook_sheryl_sandberg_sells_tons_of_stock/
Facebook COO Sandberg sells MEELLLIONS OF DOLLARS of stock
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Posted in Financial News, 5th November 2012 13:18 GMT
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Mark Zuckerberg's right-hand woman Sheryl Sandberg banked approximately $7.44m on Friday, after she sold around 353,000 of her shares in Facebook as trading restrictions for employees expired.
The free-content ad network's COO - who joined Facebook from rival Google in March 2008 - retains about 20 million vested shares in the company, a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed [1].
Her Facebook peers - general counsel Theodore Ullyot and chief bean counter David Spillane - also sold stock worth millions of dollars last week, as lock-up periods continued to expire this time for employees who are shareholders in the firm.
Zuck's outfit is still worth roughly about the same as British supermarket giant Tesco at around $60bn. During Facebook's initial public offering in May this year, the company was valued at more than $100bn.
Since then, Facebook's shares have gone south from a high of $38 to Friday's closing price on Nasdaq of $21.19.
There are still another 800 million shares considered to be ripe for trading as of 14 November, Reuters [2] noted.
Zuckerberg, though, is in it for the long haul having previously committed to not sell any shares in his company until September 2013 at the earliest. It could, of course, prove to be a shrewd move if the 28-year-old manages to steer Facebook through the choppy mobile waters. There are hints [3], at least, that this is already in play. ®