E
EmptyTimCup
Guest
Facebook Board Member Dumps 20 Million Shares of the Social Network
NEW YORK (TheBlaze/AP) — Noted libertarian and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s earliest investors and a member of its board, is among a handful of insiders dumping their stock following the social network’s disastrous initial public offering.
A regulatory filing on Monday said that Thiel sold about 20 million shares of Facebook through affiliates such as his Founders Fund and other entities last week. The shares were sold on Thursday and Friday for between $19.27 and $20.69, for a total of about $396 million.
Though Facebook’s stock has lost nearly half of its value since its initial public offering, Thiel made out well. As one of Facebook’s initial investors, he first invested $500,000 in the company in 2004. He sold 16.8 million shares in the company’s May initial public offering for about $640 million. With last week’s sale, Thiel has now sold most of his stake in the company.
Thursday marked the expiration of the first of several lockup periods barring insiders from selling Facebook’s stock following its IPO. All told, investors who owned a combined 271 million Facebook shares became eligible to sell their stock.
Accel Partners, another early investor, said in filings that it distributed stock to its limited partners after the lockup expired. It was not clear from the filings what the partners then did with the shares, though it‘s likely that some sold based on Facebook’s more than 6 percent stock price drop and high trading volume Thursday.
NEW YORK (TheBlaze/AP) — Noted libertarian and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s earliest investors and a member of its board, is among a handful of insiders dumping their stock following the social network’s disastrous initial public offering.
A regulatory filing on Monday said that Thiel sold about 20 million shares of Facebook through affiliates such as his Founders Fund and other entities last week. The shares were sold on Thursday and Friday for between $19.27 and $20.69, for a total of about $396 million.
Though Facebook’s stock has lost nearly half of its value since its initial public offering, Thiel made out well. As one of Facebook’s initial investors, he first invested $500,000 in the company in 2004. He sold 16.8 million shares in the company’s May initial public offering for about $640 million. With last week’s sale, Thiel has now sold most of his stake in the company.
Thursday marked the expiration of the first of several lockup periods barring insiders from selling Facebook’s stock following its IPO. All told, investors who owned a combined 271 million Facebook shares became eligible to sell their stock.
Accel Partners, another early investor, said in filings that it distributed stock to its limited partners after the lockup expired. It was not clear from the filings what the partners then did with the shares, though it‘s likely that some sold based on Facebook’s more than 6 percent stock price drop and high trading volume Thursday.