Oops! Xbox Exec Sold Even More Stock Prior to RROD Admission

Oops! Xbox Exec Sold Even More Stock Prior to RROD Admission

August 14, 2007
Do you remember last month's little stock stink at Microsoft?

Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) records showed that MS gaming exec Robbie Bach dumped $6.2 million worth of Microsoft shares in advance of the company's public acknowledgement that the Xbox 360 was plagued with a major design flaw, causing the dreaded Red Ring of Death hardware failure.

Oh, and Microsoft also announced it was setting aside $1 billion to deal with the problem.

Now, CNN/Money reports that Bach sold an additional $3 million worth of stock, according to documents filed with the SEC on Monday. Proper reporting of the sale of the additional shares apparently slipped through the cracks. From CNN/Money:
Bach sold $6.2 million worth of Microsoft stock between May 2 and a July 5 announcement that the company would take a $1.5 billion charge related to Xbox repairs. The most recent sales occurred between May 25 and May 30, according to SEC filings. Bach is president of the company's entertainment and devices unit, which includes the Xbox.

But according to the filing Monday, Bach had sold just over $3 million worth of company stock on May 1. Microsoft spokesman Eric Hollreiser said the additional $3 million in sales were not registered in a timely manner with the SEC "as the result of an administrative error."

Normally, a company must register insider sales with the SEC within two days of the transaction...

GP: While it doesn't smell great, Bach didn't save a great deal of money by dumping his shares, which would be the standard motivation for someone trying to sell in advance of bad news. MS stock weathered the Xbox 360 RROD announcement quite well. As CNN/Money notes:
Microsoft (MSFT) shares did not fall significantly following the July 5 announcement, when they were trading at roughly $30. Microsoft shares closed down 2% Monday, to $28.10.

Comments

This is just like when Ray Kassar dumped a bunch of Atari stock before the announcement of their losses over the whole E.T. fiasco. It might be completely legit, it might not, but the only fact that matters is that it *looks* bad...
D'oh! How very "Martha Stewart" of him.
[...] According to press reports, a senior Microsoft exec dumped $9.2 million in shares shortly before the software giant announced its $1 billion warranty extension on faulty Xbox 360 consoles. [...]
Bach didn’t save a great deal of money by dumping his shares,
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

by my calculations he saved $392,600 if i dont suck at math. since when is that not a lot?
since when your boss is bill gates with 3 billion.
hi i enjoyed the read
hi i enjoyed the read
Xbox...

Thanks. I gave a link of this letter in my blog....

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:05am
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:45am
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:37am
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:36am
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Posted 11/07/09 at 08:44am
JDKJ: And it isn't yet clear what type of ammunition Hasan used. It's strange that he purchased a gun but didn't purchase ammunition for it at the same place and time. Especially because the calibre required is peculiar to the actual gun.
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