Scott Forstall, Apple’s VP of iOS software, and a man considered to be a “CEO-in-waiting” for Apple, sold off 95% of his shares in the company on Friday, raking in a sweet sum of $38.7 million for over 64,000 shares.
The transaction was discovered in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Fortune reports:
The shares were the remains of a 120,000-share retention bonus that was granted in 2008, vested last month and reduced by 55,849 shares on March 24 to pay taxes. Forstall still holds 2,988 Apple shares worth, at Friday’s closing price, $1.8 million.
The natural question to ask is why. Why would Forstall sell off almost all of his Apple stock? Has he lost his faith in Apple? Is he preparing to jump ship? Fortunately, the answer is much easier to take: Forstall still has 100,000 shares of stock that are restricted until 2014, and another 150,000 that are restricted until 2013 and 2016 (50% for each year), suggesting that he’s probably just trying to put away some cash for a rainy day.
So, assuming that Forstall decides to remain with Apple for several more years, he really only sold of a fraction of his stock – there’s plenty more where that came from. And it’s good news – we definitely need his vision to make future versions of iOS as good as they can be!
