I agree with the earlier statement, just what percentage of his stock did he unload?

I'd like to see a comparison with this and the guys' usual trading values before jumping to any conclusions. If this is an exceptionally big share-sell then it's worth looking at, but something tells me that 6.2M in a share transaction for this guy is nothing really out of the ordinary, whether buying or selling.

It depends, how much of his compensation is in MS stock?

I am also guessing he has a fairly diversified portfolio.

I'm also guessing that the xbox division is such a tiny part of MS that the stock price isn't a concern.

As mentioned above, great so correlation = causation when we want it to?

It is possible that he anticipated a drop in stock price after the announcement. After all he is a top guy in the game devision.

But it is also possible that he saw a nice profit in his investment at that time and made the sale. Then later made the announcement.

It just requires an investigation and if he is guilty he will go to jail. If not he will be slapped on the wrist and sent away.

$6.2 million is a big chunk of cash. But Robbie probably didn't walk away with that much from the sale.

It depends on how he got those shares as to how much he walked away with from the transaction. MS awards stock as incentives to employees. Those could have been "options" given as a hiring incentive, meaning that the Robbie had to pay for the stock at the award price and then take only the difference as profit (and wait as much as five years for his ownership in the stock to vest). They could have been accumulated through an employee purchase program where he was paying a reduced price for the stock all along. Or they could have been incentive awards, which means he was given the stock as a bonus reward for service to the company. And the way all those stock incentives and employye stock sales work ... you can bet on it that he paid his tax on them all the appropriate times (award or sale), so it's not like he was scamming anyone in that regard.

@ Dexee:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Stewart_Insider_Trading_Charges

Sounds like he's reinvesting the 6.2 mil. The fact that M$ stock hasn't budged, even after that announcement of the RRoD's, makes it look completely unrelated. Now, if M$ stock tanked right after he dumped it, I would be singing a different tune.

Oh Please. Take your conspiracy theories somewhere else.

Despite games being our big issue here, it's a relatively small group in terms of people and income for Microsoft.

MS stock was the highest it's been in quite some time during that time period. Company officers and employees at all levels and in all groups were selling large chunks of stock to cash in on vested stock awared shares that were finally far enough above their strike prices to be worth selling. The stock peaked briefly then went down again and has been see sawing up and down about a buck and a half a share.

Even if he sold right now AFTER the announcement, Robbie would still make close to what he made selling his stock before the announcement. MS stock did not go in the toilet over some negative press (as was the case with Take Two a while back).

So, because of what you think, that's how corrupt the US is? Nice try.

I'm sure if it were me, I'd be in jail by now.