I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t know what Google is, but I often find myself mentioning the names Larry Page and Sergey Brin, only to receive a puzzled look in return. To clear this up – Larry and Sergey are the billionaires behind Google, they founded Google in 1998.
Larry and Sergey
The most breaking news on the Internet at the moment is that Larry and Sergey, over the next several years, will each be selling 5 million dollars of their Google shares.
Mashable picked up on the story:
Currently the two men own approximately 57.7 million shares of Google (Google) – about 18% of Google’s market value and 59% of the voting power. After the five year plan is complete, they will own around 47.7 million shares, dropping their interest in Google to around 15% of its capital stock and 48% of its voting power. This equates to a transaction of $2.25 billion, based on the current value of a share of Google, $550.01.
Yes, this technically means that the two co-founders are surrendering their absolute voting control of the company, but it’s incredibly hard to see a situation where every other investor and shareholder in the company would vote against their wishes. In other words, the drop in their voting power is not a big deal.
Why would the founders sell their shares of Google, especially as the stock has risen dramatically in recent years? The answer is diversification, one of the most prudent and practical moves in investing. It’s the same thing that Bill Gates has done for years in order to diversify his profile and give him the flexibility to invest in other endeavors, such as his foundation. In fact, the founders have done something similar before, back in 2004.
A very interesting move, but in my opinion, a good one – at least I hope so!
Chris, just one correction .. they not selling 5 million $’s of shares bit 5 million shares each and the combined value is about $5.5billion.
Hi Marius, thanks for correcting me mate, when I blogged it, I had a feeling that I had muddled something up..