Google chairman Schmidt to sell quarter of his stake
GOOGLE bigwig Eric Schmidt could cash in as much as $1.5bn (£950m) from the sale of a quarter of his stock less than a year after he stepped down as chief executive.
Schmidt, now executive chairman of Google, plans to sell 2.4m shares over the next year, shrinking his stake from 2.8 to 2.1 per cent and cutting his voting power from 9.7 to 7.3 per cent.
While the trade is officially part of Schmidt’s plan to release cash to “diversify his investment portfolio”, this would be the Google exec’s first big trade since the tech giant’s trajectory took a turn for the worse in 2007 and could suggest a lack of faith that the stock – which less than five years ago surpassed $700 – will regain much above its current nest of just over $600.
Schmidt, who keeps over $4bn of his own cash in the company, has sold 5.7m shares since Google’s IPO in 2004.