Slashdot Mirror
Larry & Sergey To Cash In $5.5B of Google Chips
theodp writes "According to an SEC filing, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have adopted five-year trading plans to sell about 5M shares each, which would yield each about $2.75B based on Friday's closing stock price of $550.01. BTW, Google kicks in 12 cents to Social Security and another 2 cents to Medicare on its founders' celebrated $1 annual salaries." After this stock is sold, the founders will hold less than 50% of the voting shares and thus will give up voting control of Google.
You know, unless they actually believe Google is about to fall apart, they wouldn't be selling. They are in a position to know whether or not Google really is the awesome and profitable machine everyone thinks it is. 6.4 billion in ad revenue in the latest reported quarter, almost 66% of it from Adwords on Google sites. Do you really think that many people use pay-per-click every three months? The Google story has "too good to be true" written all over it. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some serious money laundering going on.
Don't you wish they worked at McDonalds?
No. I just wish they paid more taxes.
Why is an honest opinion regarded as a troll? People have such illusions about the leaders of corporations! People probably called legitimate skeptics trolls before Enron, Worldcom, and "the credit crisis" too. Google is terrifyingly similar to those infamous situations right before things went wrong. A company with so many phds employed could never write a program to fudge advertising revenue numbers right? ;)
Maybe it's more profitable now to buy gold or other commodities and wait out the tax climate instead of investing. Maybe bonds now make more sense. You're less likely to risk your money in certain parts of the economy when there will be less profit from it.
Nothing Buffet says disagrees with that. That's called investment strategy.
But what makes you think higher capital gains taxes will favor the bond market or the commodities market over the stock market? Capital gains don't only apply to stocks. In the commodities market, in particular, there are few opportunities for long-term capital gains, which are the only kind that are taxable at the 15 percent rate now.
"Safer" investments have lower returns. You're claiming people will favor safer investments -- less profitable ones -- because taxes are higher. In other words, you're arguing that when people lose more of their earnings to taxes, they will want to decrease their earnings, rather than increase them. That not only explicitly contradicts Buffet's opinion (and I trust his opinion, based on 50 years of experience, more than I trust yours), but it also defies common sense.
Breakfast served all day!