Activision Blizzard CEO & Chairman sell nearly half their shares

[elmoe420]

I tried to read the article a bit more carefully. It appears they are largely just selling off the stake they bought back from Vivendi in 2013. Most likely recouping the huge amount they had to go into debt then.

Also, executives selling large amounts of stock when their stock is at a high water mark is nothing new and does not necessarily indicate anything nefarious. See Jeff Bezos selling 1.4 billion USD in shares of AMZN this year alone.

[Celista]

Or you sell when can get a big pay out. They could just want to liquidate assets. Trying to find links between the stock holdings of one person and the quality of the game is really reaching.

You don't think it's coincidental that the company's cash cow has a product release in two weeks and the CEO is dumping his stock? That being said, share sales can be due to a variety of reasons so we will see.

I don't work in finance anymore so I don't follow trends or finance news on a regular basis like I used to, not sure what is happening industry wise.

[Jotaux]

The stock is at an all time high and stock prices are based on expectations. Even if Legion sells well if its not what was expected the stock will drop. Ordinarily I would assume they don't expect Legion to hit their projections but in this case I think its to pay off all the money they borrowed for their stake that has now come due.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Did Gordon Gekko buy them?

[Deleted]

How many vanilla servers could you get for 700 mill?

[Kathranis]

Considering that Blizzard just had one of the largest PC game releases of all time with Overwatch, I seriously doubt this has anything to do with Blizzard.

If it's about any game at all, wouldn't it more likely be about Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare?

[A dot Ham]

That seems a little odd. Especially when you consider that historically stock prices have always been their highest immediately after the launch of a WoW xpac. So you'd think waiting a few weeks until the beginning of September would be the best time to cash-in.

- - - Updated - - -

You don't think it's coincidental that the company's cash cow has a product release in two weeks and the CEO is dumping his stock? That being said, share sales can be due to a variety of reasons so we will see.

I don't work in finance anymore so I don't follow trends or finance news on a regular basis like I used to, not sure what is happening industry wise.

Please cite your source for WoW being Activision Blizzard's "cash-cow".

[elmoe420]

That seems a little odd. Especially when you consider that historically stock prices have always been their highest immediately after the launch of a WoW xpac. So you'd think waiting a few weeks until the beginning of September would be the best time to cash-in.

This might just be a function of the regulations around selling the shares. You have to remember that these individuals are probably restricted to a trading window which opened right after the Q2 earnings call and closes a few weeks later (usually 4 weeks in my experience). My guess is the window will close right as Legion launches. Also not sure the lead time the SEC requires for sales of this size. Not regulations that I have first hand experience with sadly hah.

[A dot Ham]

How many vanilla servers could you get for 700 mill?

Would vanilla servers ever be able to pay back 700 million? Probably not

[Deleted]

They are selling the Act-Bli stocks they bought from Vivendi = WoW is falling.

Thank you, armchair economists like the OP, without you, I would be rich.

[A dot Ham]

They are selling the Act-Bli stocks they bought from Vivendi = WoW is falling.

Thank you, armchair economists like the OP, without you, I would be rich.

Don't you dare start questioning their convenience store education... they'll just pull out sub reports from 10 years ago and prove you wrong!

[elmoe420]

They are selling the Act-Bli stocks they bought from Vivendi = WoW is falling.

Thank you, armchair economists like the OP, without you, I would be rich.

Yeah I pointed this out above as well. Remember they went into huge debt to buy those back from Vivendi to begin with so selling them off while the stock is at its lifetime high makes a lot of sense me (although I am certainly no expert, no finance degree here). Not sure what all the gloom and doom is about.

[A dot Ham]

Yeah I pointed this out above as well. Remember they went into huge debt to buy those back from Vivendi to begin with so selling them off while the stock is at its lifetime high makes a lot of sense me (although I am certainly no expert, no finance degree here). Not sure what all the gloom and doom is about.

This just in Blizzard switches from 2-ply to 1-ply, nameless source claims trouble in Camelot.

[elmoe420]

This just in Blizzard switches from 2-ply to 1-ply, sources say there is trouble in Camelot.

LOL. Work is sucking today, thank you for this.

[Aggrophobic]

This is actually pretty bad news. They dumped a bunch of shares two weeks before WoW expansion release; this indicates to me that they think the expansion will not be as popular as predicted.

No one would dump shares before a cash cow product release unless they thought that product was going to do poorly.

Activision and Blizzard releases games all the time. Many of them sell way more copies than WoW has ever done.
When would be a good time to sell the shares your gets as part of your pay?

[Daedius]

Blizzard customer support is THE WORST in the industry.

I beg to differ, I've always had good service off them.

[Sentynel]

Blizzard customer support is THE WORST in the industry.

Except, it's not.

[Deleted]

If you actually are a shareholder you would know this article is stupid.

My family and I do this all the time, we invest in companies that are young and have tremendous potential, when the shares are cheap. When those shares reach a certain monetary value, we sell a big portion and with that money we invest it into another young company with potential, and so on.

That's how you invest wealth as a shareholder, you sell it when you see a good opportunity or when it reaches a certain monetary value. Though not sure whether they did it for this reason, but it is very likely they just wanted to use the money to invest into another project/company, which is very common.

[Celista]

Please cite your source for WoW being Activision Blizzard's "cash-cow".

Is this a serious statement..

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

so they sell their shares, they earned them, they have a right to do with them what they want.

They're selling them because they're going or will be going down soon, don't be so naive.