There has been much made of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz’s sale of company stock over the past 9 months, but if you look at it pragmatically she has only sold a very small portion of her Yahoo stock.
When she took on the job she was granted 5 million shares, according to Web Guild. At current prices that would be over $70 million dollars – quite the signing bonus but she is as good as an NFL QB or a star NBA player.
The $2 million in shares sold represent under 200,000 shares, a small amount of her portfolio.
Yahoo has dropped a considerable amount over the past ten years when it was selling at over $108 a share. But the company has split the stock twice since then so the long term investor has not been as deeply impacted as one who invested over the past two years. On October 26, 2007 the stock was over $33 – meaning the long term investor would have had more than the $108 per share ten years ago.
Bartz was brought in to help improve the bottom line. While the stock price may not reflect a great job, she has dealt with takeover bids and executive board usurpers.
With the deal with Microsoft in place, Yahoo has gotten back to the things they were once valued for – content and community.
Personally I do not think she has cashed out.