Grubhub CEO sells stock before making damaging statements

13 points by Skywing 9 years ago | 12 comments

The optics of this stock sell off seem a bit odd given the relative time to him making statements that have reduced the value of said stock.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1556458/000120919116148881/xslF345X01/doc4.xml

Couldn't he just buy them back at lower value?

askafriend 9 years ago |

He sells ~11,000 shares every month and has been doing so for a while from what I understand. A former employee posted something to this tune, though I forget where I read it.

inimino 9 years ago |

Whatever you're reaching for here, it's quite a reach.

He sent an internal email about politics and it backfired. It's not like he gave a press conference announcing the company was in financial trouble.

Skywing 9 years ago | |

It was the day before. Your point about it being an email is exactly my point this could be taken as him knowing something that nobody else did and thus selling his shares. Just looks odd

inimino 9 years ago | | |

In this the "something else" would be knowing that the CEO is about to send a stupid email the next day?

If he anticipated it would leak and tank the stock wouldn't he have more likely just run it by some folks and sent something less poorly worded?

idunno246 9 years ago | |

and they're still above where they were five days ago....

a lot of tech stocks took a beating today[1]. the stock sale, price and email are pretty unrelated

[1] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tech-stocks-plunge-for-seco...

Expialadochus 9 years ago |

Let him sell the damn stock... He thinks he's selling off of a 52 week high. What you can do is go to your bank and get an online trading account. Make sure the bank will allow you to short NYSE:GRUB before you sign on. Then, buy PUT OPTIONS thru Jan 2018... nearer term puts are safer, but Matt Maloney deserves a whole years worth of headaches for this... Got any really rich republican friends? Tell them all about this strategy!

roschdal 9 years ago |

http://www.chicagotribune.com/bluesky/originals/ct-matt-malo...

radamanthus 9 years ago |

The transaction was before the elections. Looks perfectly normal to me.

Expialadochus 9 years ago | |

Are you living in a world where people are incapable of preplanning their actions in order to intentionally cause a downward correction in the stock, so that they can later sell it for a higher price and make money this way? Talk to the SEC and see if they agree with you :P

dvdhnt 9 years ago |

Sweet another CEO being emotionally reactive.

laughfactory 9 years ago |

Oh, wow, this sounds super illegal. Particularly if he re-buys at a lower price.