Zoom CEO and other executives offloaded millions of dollars of shares before privacy and security scandals
Zoom has had something of a rocky ride in recent weeks and months, enjoying a surge in popularity due to increased homeworking. But there have also been controversies with numerous privacy and security issues leading to some users choosing to jump ship to alternative platforms such as Microsoft Teams.
Filings with the SEC show that executives at Zoom Video Communications offloaded millions of dollars' worth of shares before the controversies started to upset users.
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As reported by The Next Web, Zoom CEO Eric S Yuan got rid of $38.5 million worth of shares over the course of three months. He offloaded $10.5 million in January, $12.5 million in February, and a further $15.5 million in March, as shown by SEC filings.
Zoom's company chief financial officer, Kelly Steckelberg, also got rid of nearly $3.4 million worth of shares this year, and company director Santiago Subotovsky sold worth $16.8 million worth of stock last month. Zoom‘s chief marketing officer, Janine Pelosi, has also been incredibly busy with shares, selling them on a regular basis since October last year, right up to last month.
But Zoom insists that there is nothing amiss. In a statement given to The Next Web, a spokesperson for the company said:
As is common among public companies, certain Zoom executives and Board members have pre-set trading plans that will automatically generate trades at predetermined times with no input from them. These plans -- known as 10b5-1 plans -- are non-discretionary, meaning the executives set them up well in advance (for Zoom, that is between 45 days and three months before first trade) and then are not involved in making individual sale decisions once the plans are in place.
These sales were made pursuant to those plans. Additionally, a portion of Eric's trades are not sales, but donations to humanitarian causes. Each of these individuals still own a significant amount of Zoom's stock and are extremely optimistic about the company’s future.
See also: Michael Vi / Shutterstock