Unity executives sold thousands of shares in the weeks leading up to last night’s hugely controversial announcement it will soon charge developers when one of their games is downloaded.
The company has subsequently softened its stance slightly on a couple of aspects - but fury across the industry remains.
Behind the scenes, CEO John Riccitiello shifted 2000 shares last week on 6th September, as noted by Yahoo Finance, which noted this move was part of a trend over the past year where the exec has sold more than 50,000 shares in total and bought none.
This isn’t insider trading?
My friend told me about this earlier and that’s exactly what I thought. They knew this wouldn’t be popular and would drop the value so they sold before the announcement, that’s got to be insider trading
Read even the text posted in the OP. They’ve been selling all year, likely due to being paid in stock.
Now the share price will drop and he will buy his share back at a discount. Then they will revert the policy and share prices will rise. Boom! Free monies!
He’s actually sold over 50,000 shares and not bought any. It’s just unloading.
It’s too early to buy back.
Not if it is an automated scheduled sell and reported to the SEC.
I feel like a scheduled sell shouldn’t mean insider trading investigation is off the table.
Does it really matter if they decided to sell just before they devalue their company, or they devalued their company right after a sell? They knew about both before hand, and they can have the same intent either way.
They’ve been consistently selling off stock for the last year as noted in the article. Many of these execs get paid in a combination of cash and shares. To get their full wage they sell shares.
I suppose, but that’s a different crime under a different statute Im guessing. (Tanking the company because gou have a scheduled sell, versus selling because you tanked the company.)
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No, as the article says they’ve been doing it all year. Many execs and important employees often get paid a big chunk of their wage in stock. To get cash they need to sell stock.
I think the part where they had a trend of selling over the course of a year makes this not insider trading (or harder to prove if they were playing the long game).
Yes, but they have no reason not to engage in it when the only fallout is raised eyebrows. What are they supposed to do? “Oh no! Not the eyebrow raise! We’ll never do it again! We promise!”
Riccitiello made EA the money guzzling shithole it is today. Who thought he might change when he was given the reigns of unity?
Nobody at Unity expected him to change. It was the entire point that this shit heel got to helm the company. The three founders are billionaires now, that’s why. Two years ago one of the founders, Joachim Ante, sold $40million in stock. They dgaf anymore they just keep selling.
Remember when he wanted to charge players per digital bullet fired in FPS games?
SEC has entered the chat
“Oh no! Not the eyebrow raise! We’ll never do it again! We promise!”
Curious to see if he actually buys any of it back, then that’s an issue. Pump stock and sell high, tank it to buy low.
CEO runs his business like a business that makes him money. This and more at 10.
The irony of a bunch software devs about to sue the shit out of Unity to get EULAs invalidated.
It’s almost like they knew it was a shitty decision…
First thought: If this was done on purpose, don’t these people know how many bigwigs get caught. Like, all the time. Even martha stewart got caught. Jeeze.
Why would they think they would special? One would think they would give it up at this point.
Second thoughts: if CEOs, etc, keep this up, it makes me wonder how many people get away with it all the time, for them to take a chance like that.
Third thought: they really think the consequences for insider trading are less problematic to them than facing jail, and paying a fine up to, what, 3 times the amount they made? That makes no sense. Back to the second thought, I guess.
Reality, is this happens SO OFTEN it is like “speeding” is to normal people… all the CEOs do it. After awhile, they do it worse, eventually you have few doing 100+ mph or someone gets killed. Then the government steps in…
They keep doing it because they know they’ll probably get away with it, and if they get caught they’ll get a slap on the wrist. Martha Stewart went to jail for perjury, not insider trading. If she hadn’t lied she probably would have just paid a fine instead of going to jail.
