Eric Schmidt Sold $130 Million of Google Stock, No Big Deal
Over the last week Google chairman Eric Schmidt has sold 174,165 shares of Google stock for a $130 million pay out (he got about $750 a share on average). That would be a lot of money for most people, but Schmidt, it's just his plan for the year, which he filed with the SEC back in February, to sell 2.4 million shares, which at the time were worth some $1.5 billion. Since then, Google's stock has gone up by about 25 percent. His filing explained, "Using this trading plan, Eric can diversify his investment portfolio and can spread stock trades out over a period of one year to reduce market impact." In August he let go of $69.3 million, which Google confirmed as part of that deal. Now he is giving up the next $130 million.
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No need to panic: Even with his stock sale, Schmidt isn't abandoning Google. After the sales, his stake will be reduced from 2.8 to 2.1 percent, as The Wall Street Journal reported. So, as you can imagine. In the larger scheme of things this $130 million is puny. Basically, Schmidt has a pretty sweet set-up: Google stock is worth a lot and Schmidt has a good amount of it.
