[trebor]

I'm no expert, but this just screams doom to me. When someone inside the company sells their shares in this quantity it's _always_ before something big. I won't speculate at what is going on inside, beyond all the negative image lately, but it can't be good.

And if he wanted to diversify his portfolio then he should buy some APPL! (Laughed at my own joke, too.)

[chunkbot]

It doesn't scream "doom" to me; Ballmer's sale looks like it was done mostly for tax purposes.

[aaronbrethorst]

It still sounds bad to me. It says to me that Steve thinks there's more upside in lower cap gains taxes than hanging onto the stock. In other words, MSFT is stagnant now and it's going to be stagnant for years to come.

If Steve had been doing what Bill does—selling off a big chunk of stock every quarter—no one would've even blinked at this.

[brudgers]

Some reports put Balmer's total sale at $1.3 billion. The 5% increase in the capital gains tax rate represents up to $65,000,000. Even for a billionaire, that's real money.

[cmelbye]

I'm assuming that what you're describing is not the case. Selling because you know that something big is about to happen is insider trading.

[bhiggins]

it screams QE2 to me