Stock sales raise a few eyebrows
Official data from the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division, made four separate share transactions between May 3rd and May 30th this year, netting more than $6.1 million dollars, and sparking rumours that the sale of his shares and the official Microsoft announcement regarding Xbox 360 repairs and warranty extensions may be linked.
Bach was one of the Microsoft representatives that stepped forward recently to admit that the company had not handled the issue with broken Xbox 360s well and that he had been aware of the issues for a few months.
A Microsoft spokesperson has denied that there was any foul play (insider trading) involved. "Robbie Bach's past trading is completely unrelated to last week's announcement extending our Xbox 360 warranty," said Hollreiser in an e-mail. "Microsoft executives sell shares for a variety of reasons, the most common being portfolio diversification. Robbie continues to hold a significant stake in Microsoft and remains confident in the long-term success of the company," reads the statement.
If Bach did sell up for fear that shares in Microsoft would drop as a result of their recent announcement then he needn't have panicked. Microsoft's share price only dropped by 2 cents after the announcement and has now risen to 8 cents more than it was on the day of the warranty announcement.
Bach last sold shares in the company in August 2006, when the sale of 40,710 shares netted him approximately $1 million.
Source :: Computer World
