Commentary - Humor - Nonsense - Sarcasm - Satire - Whimsy
On the Road with DR. EVIL
THE
HEIGHT OF AMBITION
- from: Cover of National
Geographic Fall 2003 Catalog
Vol.
V, No. 9,
A Missive of Irregular Frequency and Questionable Worth
WEIRD EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE MONTH
Sepideh Anjomrooz, Tehran, Iran,
May 20, 2003
TENDER SAYING OF THE MONTH
"He's dead, get over it." Bumper sticker expressing the tender and thoughtful reaction by Republicans to the powerful hold Paul Wellstone still exerts on Minnesota politics, even though the well-thought-of senator has been dead for almost a year.
INSIDER TRADING
The stock trading activity of
insiders, that is, upper echelon managers in a corporation, is viewed as an
indication of how the company will be doing in the future. A lot of buying by
these people is considered a sign that things are "looking
up." A lot of selling is interpreted as a sign that things are looking bad.
It is required that their buying and selling activities be reported to the SEC.
Smartmoney.com and other sources report these activities.
In an effort to show such a report to Mrs. Evil, I pulled up an Insider Activity Report on Microsoft. Buying and selling activity is reported as green and red discs, respectively, along a linear graph tracing the price of the stock over time. The bigger the disc, the larger the number of shares of stock involved in the transaction.
Low and behold the charts were filled with red discs - that is - sales of Microsoft stock. By placing the pointer over the disc, the date of the sale, the identity of the seller, his/her position in the company, the number of shares sold, the price per share for which they were sold, and the total cash involved are shown on a "pull-down." I couldn't help but notice how many large red discs there were and that there were no green discs - and that the vast majority were reports of sales by William H. Gates, III, Chairman of the Board.
I got curiouser and curiouser and decided to trace the buy-sell history back through 2003. What I found blew me away.
I have listed below the selling activity of Bill Gates alone.
| NUMBER OF | |||
| SHARES SOLD | |||
| DATE | SINCE 10/1/02 | PRICE PER SHARE | TOTAL SALE |
| 10/22/2002 | 2,010,000 | $ 25.71 | $ 51,669,700 |
| 10/23/2002 | 2,000,000 | $ 26.27 | $ 51,526,000 |
| 10/28/2002 | 2,000,000 | $ 26.27 | $ 52,528,600 |
| 10/29/2002 | 2,000,000 | $ 25.81 | $ 51,623,000 |
| 10/30/2002 | 2,000,000 | $ 26.39 | $ 52,773,000 |
| 10/31/2002 | 2,000,000 | $ 26.77 | $ 53,541,600 |
| 11/1/2002 | 2,000,000 | $ 26.21 | $ 52,405,600 |
| 2/3/2003 | 1,994,000 | $ 24.35 | $ 48,544,800 |
| 2/5/2003 | 2,000,000 | $ 23.74 | $ 47,482,600 |
| 2/18/2003 | 4,000,000 | $ 24.96 | $ 99,840,000 |
| 2/19/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 24.62 | $ 24,623,900 |
| 2/20/2003 | 1,976,240 | $ 24.29 | $ 47,996,700 |
| 2/24/2003 | 2,000,000 | $ 24.04 | $ 48,087,600 |
| 2/25/2003 | 977,122 | $ 24.14 | $ 23,584,000 |
| 2/27/2003 | 2,000,000 | $ 23.76 | $ 47,526,400 |
| 2/28/2003 | 2,000,000 | $ 23.79 | $ 47,570,000 |
| 3/3/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 23.70 | $ 23,701,100 |
| 3/4/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 23.23 | $ 23,229,400 |
| 4/22/2003 | 2,000,000 | $ 25.61 | $ 51,210,400 |
| 4/23/2003 | 2,000,000 | $ 25.74 | $ 51,482,700 |
| 4/24/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 25.49 | $ 25,720,000 |
| 4/25/2003 | 4,000,000 | $ 25.33 | $ 101,321,000 |
| 4/28/2003 | 4,000,000 | $ 25.78 | $ 103,123,000 |
| 4/29/2003 | 5,000,000 | $ 25.87 | $ 129,361,000 |
| 7/23/2003 | 1,369,010 | $ 26.32 | $ 36,038,500 |
| 7/25/2003 | 159,729 | $ 26.61 | $ 4,295,110 |
| 7/28/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 26.73 | $ 26,728,400 |
| 7/29/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 26.34 | $ 26,337,300 |
| 7/31/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 26.53 | $ 26,526,700 |
| 8/1/2003 | 317,192 | $ 26.22 | $ 8,316,420 |
| 8/4/2003 | 100,000 | $ 26.36 | $ 2,635,250 |
| 8/4/2003 | 1,900,000 | $ 25.95 | $ 49,299,400 |
| 8/5/2003 | 113,557 | $ 26.25 | $ 2,980,890 |
| 8/5/2003 | 313,000 | $ 25.90 | $ 8,107,550 |
| 8/6/2003 | 231,336 | $ 26.09 | $ 6,035,340 |
| 8/6/2003 | 325,246 | $ 25.95 | $ 8,438,500 |
| 8/6/2003 | 443,418 | $ 25.73 | $ 11,411,000 |
| 8/7/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 25.62 | $ 25,617,900 |
| 8/11/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 25.70 | $ 25,698,600 |
| 8/12/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 25.60 | $ 25,610,000 |
| 8/13/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 25.65 | $ 25,646,500 |
| 8/14/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 25.61 | $ 25,605,500 |
| 8/18/2003 | 1,000,000 | $ 25.62 | $ 25,623,800 |
| 8/19/2003 | 790,000 | $ 26.26 | $ 20,765,200 |
| 8/19/2003 | 209,300 | $ 25.92 | $ 5,425,640 |
| TOTALS | 67,229,150 | $ 1,707,615,600 |
A total of $1,707,615,600 - that's with a big "B" - worth of shares were sold by Gates between October 1, 2002 and August 19, 2003 - 10 1/2 months. Does this represent his stock options and/or salary for this short period of time? Is Bill cashing in before the company pulls an "Enron?" Does he want to pay cash for a modest home overlooking Victoria Falls?
Then I noticed that his selling was in waves, during which he was by far the dominant seller - in terms of the frequency and number of shares. During the wave troughs, i.e., between 11/1/2002 and 2/3/2003, 3/4/2003 and 4/22/2003, and 4/29/2003 and 7/23/2003, (see above) underling execs were busy selling their shares of Microsoft. Twenty other execs made about 79 stock sales during this same10 1/2 month period - a total of 66,080,077 or so shares.
Including those sold by Bill Gates - at least 133,309,227 shares.
Only one purchase was made by insiders during this period and that was on 8/22/02 for a relatively measly 4,000 shares.
How's that for corporate greed?
(Mrs. Evil says, however, that Bill Gates has many redeeming qualities, unlike the Enronites in this country. He has given millions to education (including computers in schools), to medical research, and to fight AIDS in underdeveloped countries. So, basically, he's a good bad guy. Now, if only he could do something for poor old Martha, whom the Government is prosecuting instead of the likes of Ken Lay.)
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