Why would Yahoo! Co-Founder David Filo sell 167,000 of his shares?

On Monday July 30, the co-founder of Yahoo Inc. sold 167,000 shares of common stock under a prearranged trading plan, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

In a Form 4 filed with the SEC Friday, David Filo reported that he sold the shares Wednesday for $24.69 to $24.76 apiece.

From an investment and busness prospective, why on earth would Mr.Filo sell that many shares at a time when Yahoo! shares were down so low? Why not wait a bit until the price came back up and reap maximum profits? Does he know something that we do not?

insider rules are different from the general publics...

otherwise he would just wait until he knew they would beat earnings and sell into the pop before they disappoint...

to avoid the appearence of inpropriety insiders often set up pre-arranged schedules to sell through-out the year.. like selling 1/12 of the desired amount determined in January.... this takes away anyones claim that they acted on insider information.

I have no idea if that amount of shares is a lot to him... do you have any idea how many total he owns? in his name and his wife's name and the trust name and the holding company;s name etc etc etc??....

oftentimes when an insider has made 100 million or so he will peel out of a significant portion so that no matter what he will always be rich... just like everyone else diversification is important.

I read a few years back that Michal Dell was so diversified that even if his entire holdings of Dell stock went to 0 he'd still be the richest man in American under 40....

that type of safety thru diversification is worth more than squeezing out another million $ or so...

my 2 cents
cheers

he needed the money
he dose not think they will go back up soon
he thinks their value will continue to fall

Predicting a fall out?

Does he know something that we do not?

Absolutely! That's why the analysts that follow Yahoo! will digest that large sale and issue a reccomendation on what their clients should do. The big money has already made any move that is there to be made.

Now the casual investor will start making his/her move but it will be on the late side and they will have increased exposure with a decreased likliehood of a lucrative return.

The time to act is generally within the first hour or at least the first few hours of the news being released. That's the only time I made money trading options.

Well these executives are always being granted stock options, which they need to first exercise and then sell to get their money. Besides owning who knows how many million of shares, these options only add to their position, so it is a way for them to raise money and keep their share of the company constant. Also the number of shares he sold is so small compared to the total it is not something bad to read into. All executives do this.