WhatsApp CEO Sold Facebook Stocks
Mr. Jan koum former WhatsApp CEO has sold Facebook stocks worth $247 million
Facebook Inc. is one of those companies that tend to remains in the limelight some way or the other. Last week when most of us were relaxing at home, enjoying the home cooked decadent turkey supper, the Chief Executive Officer of WhatsApp, Mr. Jan Koum actually got paid.
Koum initially sold his messaging platform to Facebopok for an amount worth $19 billion back in the fiscal year of 2014. However, now he is again in the limelight since he has sold Facebook stock that worth more than $247 million the previous week through multiple transactions as reported by the filings from Securities and Exchange Commission.
Koum made use of a Rule known as the 10b5-1 trading plan that enabled them to sell out stocks that worth more than 2.5 million. These stocks are trading at their all time high as of yet. This plan actually enables the executives from the company to establish a date for trading relatively in advance so that any issue regarding insider trading gets eliminated. Moreover, they can also be designed in a manner that executes the trades when the stock prices reach a certain price target at a particular instance of time. A broker can also be assigned to designate the trade or to gauge where it fits perfectly.
According to Re/Code, “Koum isn’t the only Facebook stockholder who cashed in this month (although he was the only one we noticed selling tons of stock over an otherwise quiet holiday week). Longtime board member and early investor Marc Andreessen sold 73 percent of his stake in the company over a one-week period earlier this month. The sale totaled roughly $160 million.”
However, the payday of Koum actually makes Andreessen’s seem quite minimal particularly if you take this into consideration. Koum sold stocks worth $247 million which were are less than 4% of his accumulative holding. So this means that he still has stocks worth $7 billion of FB. Apart from that he might a lot more vested stocks over the years to come so that he can sell a lot more of them.
So far the reason behind selling the stocks out still remains unknown or maybe there was no particular reason at all. Just another day at the Silicon Valley.
However, whatever he has done has actually made history where stock worth million have now been sold by the former WhatsApp CEO. This news has actually caused immense disruption in the industry.
