Shwed, Nacht each sell $5.3m Check Point shares
Including the latest sale, Check Point CEO Shwed has sold $21.3 million worth of Check Point shares, and senior VP Marius Nacht has sold $18.4 million worth of shares.
Tali Tsipori 5 May 05 15:41
Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) CEO Gil Shwed and senior VP Marius Nacht have begun selling holdings in the company. A notice sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) yesterday indicates that ten days ago, Shwed and Nacht each sold 250,000 shares at an average price of $21 per share, for $5.3 million.
Shwed and Nacht are selling Check Point shares in a blind sale plan, under which they have no control on the date of the sale or the number of shares sold. Shwed and Nacht are selling shares in order to finance the exercise of options whose vesting period ends soon.
In a statement about future sales by Shwed and Nacht, Check Point said they were converting options granted in July 1999 at a strike price equal to the share price at the time. Check Point was traded at an average price of $10 per share at the time, which means that Shwed and Nacht will get a capital gain of $2.8 million each on the current sale.
Check Point says that Shwed and Nacht are expected to sell up to three million shares each, which means that the current sale amounts to 8% of the total sale. Shwed currently owns 12.6% of Check Point, worth $689 million, and Nacht owns 11.4%, worth $624 million. Shwed and Nacht's holdings include options not yet converted into shares.
Including the latest sale, Shwed has sold $21.3 million worth of Check Point shares, and Nacht has sold $18.4 million worth of shares. Check Point vice chairman Jerry Ungerman has sold $3.5 million worth of shares so far this year, and David Rubner, a director and former CEO of ECI Telecom (Nasdaq: ECIL), sold a modest $280,000 worth.
Check Point is currently traded at a market cap of $5.47 billion, after falling 11% since the beginning of the year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on May 5, 2005
Midas
