Twitter Inc (TWTR)

[ulfahl]

Not going to happen, $TWTR CEOs are better than FaceBoo* CEO and here's why:

Lockup expiration fears calmed:

One of the major points from the bear camp was the huge lockup expiration coming up in May. Like many IPOs, insiders had a window in which they were not allowed to sell stock. Next month, one of the expiration dates hits, and this was the larger of the two lockups. The bear camp continues to argue that once the May date hits, insiders will sell a ton of shares. Theoretically, this would flood the market with excess supply, and shares would drop.

Well, some of the fears over the lockup have been calmed, as Twitter filed an 8-K on Monday. Here's the main detail:

Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams, co-founders of Twitter, and our Chief Executive Officer, Richard Costolo, have informed us that they have no current plans to sell any of their shares of Twitter common stock. If Messrs. Dorsey, Williams or Costolo decide to sell, they are required by our policies to do so pursuant to a trading plan intended to comply with the requirements of Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (a "10b5-1 Plan"). We require any 10b5-1 Plan to be entered into during an open trading window and to have a "cooling-off" period, so the earliest Messrs. Dorsey, Williams and Costolo could sell would be 90 days after our next open window. Additionally, Benchmark venture capital funds, which are affiliated with a member of our board of directors, have informed us they have no present intention to sell or distribute stock to their limited partners before or immediately after the expiration of our lockup on May 5, 2014.

This might have been a surprise to some. However, you also have to remember that shares have come down a bit recently. If shares were still over $70, Monday's news may have been different. But with shares back down to where they were just after the IPO, insiders are deciding not to sell yet. If those insiders believe shares are going higher in the long run, this is the smart move to make. You might see some shares sold this year from insiders if they have tax obligations that need to be taken care of. You saw this happen with Facebook (FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg back in late 2013, when he sold more than $2 billion worth of shares to pay a tax bill.