Insider selling question:
"The person asking the question about the timing of the sales could have been anyone. Does anyone know who he was? It was a good question and caused Howard to dance around alittle but so what."
Phonetically, it sounded like he was introduced as "Robert Steadman w/ Ben Lee" but it was difficult to hear as it was mumbled/garbled.
His question was a good one and it was stated with a certain presence and clarity, especially when compared to Howards bumbling answer.
He asked, "During the months of May, June, July, the top four members of management all sold substantial share of their stock holdings in the company and this was in the mid-latter part of negotiations with Nokia, the most critical period probably in the companies history.
Could you explain two things:
Number one, how the window could have been open for insider selling at that stage of the most important part of these negotiations, and how, even as of July 6th when Howard Goldberg sold stock, the management had no idea that these talks were not going well and were going to come to a very unhappy conclusion?"
Howard bumbled out some answer about how general council is involved in insider sales and the current state of affairs is discussed with general council but how he couldn't answer the question without getting into confidential issues and what not.
Then he continued on to answer a question that was NOT asked by saying, "The answer then to the generic question of Why does management sell at any point in time..."and proceeded to waste time talking about diversification, narrow sell windows under SEC rules and periodic personal needs for cash.
The analyst then continued to press on:
"To follow up on that, this process theoretically with Nokia was triggered in mid-march. Is it your contention then that from mid march to july 6th, members of management, including yourself, had absolutely no conception that these talks were not going well and that arbitration might be a likely outcome?"
Howard bumbled some more and said he couldn't characterize the talks as "well" or "not well". After he finished the analyst concluded with a lump in his throat and saying;
"OK, then, let me congratulate you with your timing then."
My thoughts exactly!
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