2 min

American executives of large tech companies sold 3.6 billion dollars (3.3 billion euros) in company shares in May. According to financial data collected by FinWiz.

While stock markets around the world are struggling with the consequences of the ongoing corona crisis, many board members of large American technology companies such as Facebook, Amazon and MasterCard sold their shares for big profits.

Hard Fork built a tool using the SEC data collected by FinWiz. This tool allows you to see exactly how much money American companies made selling their shares.

https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/2552202/?utm_source=showcase&utm_campaign=visualisation/2552202

For example, MasterCard CEO, Ajay Banga, sold company shares for 23.4 million dollars (21.3 million euros). While Timothy Murphy, General Counsel of Mastercard, liquidated 52.489 shares with a value of just under 15 million dollars (13.7 million euros).

Perhaps the most striking appearance is the space tourism company Virgin Galactic of eccentric businessman Richard Branson. In April, the businessman had to pawn his own island to raise enough money to keep as many jobs as possible in the company. But recent figures show that Branson’s investment company Vieco 10 has sold 2.6 million shares with a total value of 41 million dollars (37.4 million euros).

Timed sales

The sale of a large amount of shares in some cases seemed to be perfectly timed. But it is not unusual for senior board members to plan the sale of shares in advance. For example, Hard Fork previously reported that Zoom CEO Eric Yuan had sold 38 million dollars (34.6 million euros) in shares just before Zoom’s privacy problems were discovered. A company spokesman later confirmed that the sale of the shares had already been initiated 45 days earlier.