Microsoft's Bach sold $3 million more stock before Xbox news

[Zeus]

Microsoft executive Robbie Bach reportedly sold $3 million more in company stock than was previously announced before the announcement of the Xbox 360 warranty extension due to high console failure rates. At least the 'fragile' design of the Xbox 360 is good news for some...


Microsoft Corp. executive Robbie Bach sold $3 million more in company stock during the period leading up to an announcement about a costly flaw in its Xbox video game console than previously reported, according to a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

MarketWatch reported in July that following an eight-month period when he sold no shares, Bach sold $6.2 million worth of Microsoft stock between May 2 and a July 5 announcement that the company would take a $1.5 billion charge related to Xbox repairs. The most recent sales occurred between May 25 and May 30, according to SEC filings. Bach is president of the company's entertainment and devices unit, which includes the Xbox.


News Source: <A href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/microsofts-bach-sold-additional-stock/story.aspx?guid=%7BBECA3A50-EF33-4161-A111-A43BDC8B0462%7D" target="_blank">Marketwatch.com</a>

[kcvfr400]

This stinks to me of insider trading issues. We all know people with alot of money trade shares regularly but to dump so much of your own companies so close to such huge financial bad news is dodgy as hell. In the U.K. there would be an investigation or press witchhunt for this sort of thing. so interesting to see what happens in the U.S. over such things.

[CZroe]

"At least the 'fragile' design of the Xbox 360 is good news for some... "

Does MaxConsole not know a thing about how the stock market works? Being forced to sell bad stocks is BAD, not GOOD. These stocks were about to lose a lot of money and it is suspected that this was his motivation for dumping them just like any stockholder that suspects that his stock will be doing poorly soon.

He is suspected of "insider trading" which means abusing his inside knowledge at the company to dump stocks before they perform too badly and rip off the buyers of that stock. You aren't allowed to use private/secret information in a public transaction. It doesn't mean he makes more money, it means he lost less due to his company not coming clean to the public and admitting the problem earlier (giving him time to dump his stock seemingly without association).

[CZroe]

This stinks to me of insider trading issues. We all know people with alot of money trade shares regularly but to dump so much of your own companies so close to such huge financial bad news is dodgy as hell. In the U.K. there would be an investigation or press witchhunt for this sort of thing. so interesting to see what happens in the U.S. over such things.

Did you miss the whole Martha Stewart fiasco? :D That's the benchmark right there!

[indierocker]

"At least the 'fragile' design of the Xbox 360 is good news for some... "

Does MaxConsole not know a thing about how the stock market works? Being forced to sell bad stocks is BAD, not GOOD. These stocks were about to lose a lot of money and it is suspected that this was his motivation for dumping them just like any stockholder that suspects that his stock will be doing poorly soon.

He is suspected of "insider trading" which means abusing his inside knowledge at the company to dump stocks before they perform too badly and rip off the buyers of that stock. You aren't allowed to use private/secret information in a public transaction. It doesn't mean he makes more money, it means he lost less due to his company not coming clean to the public and admitting the problem earlier (giving him time to dump his stock seemingly without association).

Uhhh...MS stock barely dropped 2% after the announcement, it really doesn't make a difference at all.

[kcvfr400]

Uhhh...MS stock barely dropped 2% after the announcement, it really doesn't make a difference at all.

2% of 6 million is still 60,000 dollars and a decrease like 2% in stock market terms is not small at all.

[ku16610]

This stinks to me of insider trading issues. We all know people with alot of money trade shares regularly but to dump so much of your own companies so close to such huge financial bad news is dodgy as hell. In the U.K. there would be an investigation or press witchhunt for this sort of thing. so interesting to see what happens in the U.S. over such things.

Same here but as bush is still in power we wont see microsoft ever get punished.

[benthere]

The high ups' at Microsoft and and most blue chip companies get paid in stock in addition to their salary which they can't sell right away. Smart people don't want to be too heavily invested in one stock especially if they work at that company, so they take the money off the table. Also if you have 6 million 120,000 is the money that gets lost in the crack of your couch.

[indierocker]

2% of 6 million is still 60,000 dollars and a decrease like 2% in stock market terms is not small at all.

I don't know what stock market you buy from, but $60,000 spread throughout the hundreds of thousand of MS stock owners isn't going to have any effect whatsoever. 2% is very small in these terms. Not to mention that since then the stock has increased beyond where it was, so unless you were stupid enough to sell just after the announcement, you weren't effected at all.

[CZroe]

It's not like he knew that it would be only 2%. Besides, I'm sure the actual impact will be felt over the next few quarters of high repair costs affecting profits.

[grapeape]

It's not like he knew that it would be only 2%. Besides, I'm sure the actual impact will be felt over the next few quarters of high repair costs affecting profits.

Actually it wont be the money for repair costs has already been accounted for and wont even show on the coming years balance sheet. If anything there will be a surplus if all the money alotted isnt needed.

[kcvfr400]

I don't know what stock market you buy from, but $60,000 spread throughout the hundreds of thousand of MS stock owners isn't going to have any effect whatsoever. 2% is very small in these terms. Not to mention that since then the stock has increased beyond where it was, so unless you were stupid enough to sell just after the announcement, you weren't effected at all.

Well I follow the FTSE alot myself since I did A-level economics at school and if any big company takes a 2% dive in value it tends to affect all the suppliers of that company value and customers too, and market confidence so the whole U.S. market could easily fall because of 1 companies problems. Even more so that the U.S. market is not doing as well as it could at the moment denoted by the weak dollar exchange rate. And the $60,000 was not many stock holders it just was this one man so if you take 2% of microsofts stock value across the board its a real large amount of money being lost out of the Dow jones value.

[CZroe]

Actually it wont be the money for repair costs has already been accounted for and wont even show on the coming years balance sheet. If anything there will be a surplus if all the money alotted isnt needed.

That's not what I'm saying. Just because things follow expectation doesn't mean that it's not going to cause a performance drag. Basically, the revenue they make over the next several quarters will be decreased by costs. That 1B repair costs estimate will be split up between the quarters and the profit remaining from those revenues will be low for several quarters. It doesn't matter if the cause is known, but if they aren't performing well, they may have a backslide in stock values. It's all how things are "perceived" in the stock market. Swaying opinions move billions.

[Mikeyy]

Same here but as bush is still in power we wont see microsoft ever get punished.

You do know that being the President doesnt give you full 100% control over everyone and everything. Your blame lies elsewhere in the Government.