For all the mockery he is subjected to on a regular basis, both here and elsewhere, Dennis Gartman issued a very prescient and timely warning ahead of Facebook’s earnings. As we noted yesterday in our note why Gartman thinks that this is a “This Is A Dangerous Time“, the (formerly) regular CNBC guest pointed out the following troubling fact:
… note the chart this page, courtesy of RBMP Capital, of the huge and increasing sales of Facebook by its founder, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, over the course of the past several years and most notably over the course of the past several months. When owners sell this aggressively… no matter what the excuse they might give…only the foolhardy do not pay heed.
Today, Gartman understandably takes a victory lap, and writes the following:
Facebook closed at 4:00 p.m. at a new all-time closing higher of $217/share, but when the news came out if fell swiftly to $173/share… a loss of just over 20%! This is fascinating in light of the massive “insider selling” of Facebook shares by non-other than Mr. Zuckerberg himself in recent weeks and noted here yesterday.
As a reminder, Facebook’s crash overnight has been so massive, at one point the total value lost was over $150 billion, greater than the market cap of bitcoin, making it the biggest stock collapse in history.
Bloomberg has also picked up on this insider selling deluge, and writes that “nine Facebook insiders combined to sell about $4.13 billion worth of stock since the Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal first surfaced on March 17.”- READ MORE
[divider][/divider]Following months of scandal and criticism, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg lost $16.8 billion this week after Facebook stock plummeted 20 percent after market close on Wednesday, Business Insider reported.
The freefall came after a disappointing earnings report for Facebook’s second financial quarter which was below analysts’ expectations.
“At the current after hours prices and given its market cap at the close Wednesday, Facebook is poised to lose more than $123 billion in market value,” CNBC reported.
Facebook’s investors are now working on a plan to oust Zuckerberg as the company’s chairman because of his “mishandling” of these numerous company controversies, Fortune reported.
Shareholder Trillium Asset Management — which holds an $11 million stake in Facebook — is leading the way on the proposal to oust Zuckerberg.
Trillium wants an independent chair to take Zuckerberg’s place and has been pushing for the company to split the chairman and CEO roles.
According to Business Insider, this plan will likely be unsuccessful because of Zuckerberg’s voting power counts for more than half of the total influence. – READ MORE
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