Insiders

Insiders: Komag climbs the SV150 ladder

2007-04-17T20:39:00.000-07:00

COMPANY GOES FROM 63 TO 54 ON STRONG SALES
By Chris O'Brien
San Jose Mercury News

With today's publication of the SV150, let's take a look at stock sales at one unheralded company that made a sizable jump up the rankings: Komag.

The San Jose maker of disk-drive components landed at 54, up from 63 last year. Sales in 2006 rose to $937.7 million - up 37 percent from $686 million in 2005. The stock price is down to $30.76, compared with $34.66 at the start of 2006. In between, though, the stock enjoyed a nice ride up to $53.48 in March 2006, but has tumbled down slowly every since.

The company got only a temporary bump in the stock price when it announced March 21 that its first-quarter sales would be better than originally forecast. Rather then declining 2 or 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006, the company said sales will rise "slightly." The stock has fallen slightly since then.

Read more here.

SV150: Valley's public companies do well, but there are fewer of them

2007-04-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

By Chris O'Brien and Jack Davis
San Jose Mercury News

The rosy numbers posted by the SV150 last year weren't enough to reverse one stark trend: The number of publicly traded companies in Silicon Valley continues to shrink.

Revenues for the SV150 rose, as did profits. Jobs posted their biggest post-bubble gains. Tech stocks' prices climbed.

But the valley lost 28 publicly traded companies - including 13 that were on last year's SV150 list. That was the sixth straight year of decline, leaving 280 public companies, down from a bubble-induced high of 417 in 2000. Already in 2007, three companies on the SV150 list have announced they are being sold.

Economists and forecasters seemed in general agreement that there's no need to hit the panic button - yet.

The vast majority of the companies - 25 - vanished through acquisitions. The difference from previous eras is that they're not being replaced as quickly by new companies going public. Instead, companies are increasingly opting to sell themselves.

Read more here.

PUTTING STOCK IN BIOMEDICAL FIRM

2007-04-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

ABAXIS SHARES HOT COMMODITY AS REVENUE RISES

Published: Monday, April 9, 2007
BY CHRIS O'BRIEN, Mercury News

Abaxis may not be the most recognized name in Silicon Valley. But its portable blood-testing devices have been slowly raising the company's profile.

As a result, the Union City biomedical company's stock price has been on a steady climb the past two years. And insiders, after laying low for several years, have begun selling stock at a decent clip over the past year.

Read more here.

Insider Trading: An era is ending at SupportSoft

2007-04-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

PIONEER, EX-CEO RADHA BASU TO LEAVE BOARD

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

One of the more path-breaking careers in Silicon Valley will quietly come to a close this month when Radha Basu steps down as a director at SupportSoft.

While Basu was often praised for her leadership skills at the Redwood City company, she leaves behind a company that struggled to find ways to grow after the tech bust. Still, it was a lucrative tenure for Basu, who remains one of the company's largest shareholders and has begun selling off her sizable holdings in recent months.

According to a securities filing in February, Basu owns 2.4 million shares of SupportSoft - about 5.4 percent of the company's stock. Since last August, Basu has sold 323,800 shares at prices ranging from $4.00 a share to $6.46 to collect $1.8 million.

Overall, Basu has sold a total of $6.7 million worth of stock since she joined SupportSoft.

Read more here.

Insider Trading: Google stock enriches VC Doerr

2007-03-26T23:16:00.000-07:00

SINCE 2004 IPO, SHARE SALES HAVE TOTALED 1.1 MILLION

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Much of the attention that venture capitalist John Doerr has drawn in recent months has focused on his environmental advocacy and investment in "green" technologies. But thanks to his investment in search engine powerhouse Google, Doerr in recent months has been quietly amassing the kind of green that Silicon Valley has traditionally favored.

Doerr, a partner at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, was one of the early backers of Google, an investment that has added to Doerr's legend of spotting big tech winners. His roster has included Amazon.com, Sun Microsystems and Intuit.

Since Google held its initial public offering of stock in 2004, Doerr, who sits on the board of directors, has sold 1.1 million shares to collect $423.2 million. Those sales included 242,550 shares sold for $98.1 million that Doerr controlled indirectly on behalf of KPCB and its clients.

Read more here.

Insiders buying on the bad news

2007-03-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

3 COMPANIES DRAW INTEREST FROM INVESTORS

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Each week, this column typically looks at insiders who are selling stock or exercising options. But in recent weeks, there have been several notable cases of insiders making big stock purchases.

Read more here.

Insiders: Execs cash in on Hyperion's sale

2007-03-12T18:39:00.000-07:00

ORACLE PURCHASE GIVES BIG BOOST TO STOCK PRICE

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

There's nothing like news that a company is being sold to send its stock through the roof. Just ask Hyperion Solutions.

On March 1, Oracle announced it would pay $3.3 billion in cash to acquire the Santa Clara-based maker of business intelligence software. That works out to $52 a share, a big premium over the $42.84 the stock had closed at the previous day.

When the market closed after the announcement, the stock had jumped 20.4 percent to $51.57.

That jump proved to be good timing for two insiders at Hyperion who sold stock that same day, under prearranged trading schedules known as 10b5-1 plans.

Robin Washington, Hyperion's chief financial officer, sold 5,000 shares March 1 at a price of $51.75 per share to collect $258,750. By comparison, Washington sold 7,400 shares Feb. 23 for $45 to collect $333,000. Washington, who joined Hyperion in January 2006, still holds 24,253 shares that could be worth $1.26 million when the deal with Oracle closes.

Read more here.

Insiders: Yahoo sales fell with share price in '06

2007-03-05T18:37:00.000-08:00

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

The past year probably won't go down as the best ever in the history of Yahoo.
The Sunnyvale Internet giant couldn't seem to escape the shadow of its nemesis, Google. Yahoo's stock dropped almost 35 percent in 2006. A new advertising system designed to compete against Google was delayed. Yahoo reorganized and lost one of its top executives in the process.

Another indication of the tough year: Stock sales by insiders were way down. Insiders sold $175.2 million worth of Yahoo stock in 2006, a figure that includes a single sale of $33 million by Chief Executive Terry Semel. That compares to $514.1 million worth of stock sold in 2005 and $499.1 million in 2004.

Even if it was a down year in some respects, revenue still rose 22 percent to $6.4 billion. And two months into 2007, the stock is regaining some lost ground. By Friday, when it closed at $30.42, it was up 19.1 percent for the year.

Insiders have also been selling, though at a pace that would put them closer to 2006 than the previous two years.

So far in 2007, five insiders have sold $33.7 million in stock.

Read more here.

5 Varian execs ride wave of success

2007-02-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

STOCK SALES ADD UP TO $5.8 MILLION

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Varian's good fortune was also good fortune for some of its top executives.

The scientific instrument company beat its first-quarter earnings expectations by so much that the stock jumped 11 percent the day after results were announced. Several insiders benefited by selling shares that same day under pre-arranged trading plans.

Varian's strong results seemed to be the result of increased sales across many of its products, plus the impact of several cost-savings measures it's taken in recent years.

Read more here.

Insiders ride Omnicell's success

2007-02-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

SHARES SOLD AT HIGHEST RATE IN FIVE YEARS

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

For Omnicell of Mountain View, 2006 was an explosive year. But 2007 is shaping up to be even better. That has cheered investors. And with the stock rising, insiders are cashing in their stock and options.

Since the beginning of 2007, insiders have sold $4.8 million in stock. Although the quarter is only about half over, that still represents the most selling in a single quarter in five years, according to Thomson Financial. The company had its initial public offering of stock in August 2001.

Omnicell makes a variety of systems that help health care organizations manage things like physician order management and pharmaceuticals. For instance, one of the company's most popular systems uses a bar code scanner to monitor the flow of prescription drugs along every step -- from the order to its being administered by the patient.

Read more here.

A profitable year for Trimble

2007-02-12T21:01:00.000-08:00

EXECS CASH IN AS SHARES RISE BY 40 PERCENT

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

For the past year, Trimble Navigation has been headed in the right the direction. The stock is up. Revenues are up. And so are sales of stock by insiders.

Based in Sunnyvale, the company offers a range of positioning products, such as global positioning systems, or GPS. It's had a steady stream of big announcements in the last few weeks.

Back in December, Trimble announced that it would pay $496 million in cash and stock to acquire Fremont-based @Road, which makes mobile products that track employees in the field. On Jan. 25, Trimble reported that revenue for 2006 was $940.2 million -- up 21 percent from $774.9 million in 2005.

Read more here.

CyberSource execs ring up gains

2007-02-05T19:05:00.000-08:00

PROFIT GROWING FOR A SURVIVOR OF DOT-COM BUST

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Count CyberSource of Mountain View among the survivors of the dot-com bust. Recently, the company has shown signs that its persistence is translating into growth.

If that trend holds, nobody would be more satisfied -- or stand to gain more -- than William McKiernan, who founded the company in 1994. McKiernan still serves as chairman and chief executive and remains the largest stockholder. In the past two years, McKiernan has sold more than $8 million in stock and still holds more than 3 million shares of CyberSource.

Read more here.

HP bonuses reflect profitable year

2007-01-29T09:53:00.000-08:00

EXECS' PAYOUTS ALSO BOOSTED BY 3-YEAR PROGRAM

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Last week, Hewlett-Packard disclosed that it had given Chief Executive and Chairman Mark Hurd one of the biggest bonuses in Silicon Valley history as part of the $19 million he received in 2006. And Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president of HP's Imaging and Printing Group, saw his bonus more than double.

So how did the rest of HP's executives do?

Read more here.

Execs sell PDF stock just in time

2007-01-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

SAN JOSE FIRM WARNS OF LOSSES AND PRICES DROP

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Insiders at PDF Solutions of San Jose who sold stock earlier this month may have done so just in time. On Jan. 11, the company warned that financial results for the most recent quarter would fall well short of management's previous guidance. The stock price has since fallen.

In a Jan. 11 press release, PDF Solutions, which sells software to design chip manufacturing systems, said revenue for the fourth quarter that ended Dec. 31 would come in between $18.7 million to $19.1 million. Back in October, the company had predicted that revenue would be in the range of $21 million to $22.5 million.

Although analysts had projected a profit of 10 cents a share, the company on Jan. 11 said it expected to post a loss of 4 cents to 6 cents a share.

Read more here.

VeriFone a good call for its chief

2007-01-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

CEO BERGERON, PARTNERS BOUGHT IT FROM HP IN '01

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Earlier this month, VeriFone of San Jose rewarded Chairman and Chief Executive Douglas G. Bergeron with a lucrative, three-year contract extension that could be worth up to $63.4 million if the company meets a series of financial targets.

The pay package would be on top of $94.2 million that Bergeron has received in salary, bonus, dividends and stock sales since he and some partners paid $50 million back in 2001 to purchase a division of Hewlett-Packard that became VeriFone.

Read more here.

Netflix chief stepped up sales in '06

2007-01-08T15:20:00.000-08:00

EXECS CASH IN AS COMPANY'S SHARES MEANDER

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Netflix stock had a slightly down year in 2006. That didn't matter much to insiders who had a good year selling their stock in the online DVD rental service.

The stock started 2006 trading at $27.06 and closed the year at $25.86. Along the way, it climbed as high as $33.12 and dipped as low as $18.12. While the company hasn't posted its annual revenue numbers for 2006, the first nine months saw revenue climb 47.1 percent and profit jump almost 800 percent over the same period in 2005.

Despite investors' mixed reaction to this performance, five insiders still sold $78.4 million worth of stock in 2006, up from $9.1 million in 2005. Since the company's initial public offering in May 2002, insiders have sold $469.3 million worth of stock.

Read more here.

A profitable ride at Smart Modular

2007-01-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

FOUNDER SOLD, BOUGHT, WENT PUBLIC TWICE

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Almost two decades after Ajay Shah founded Smart Modular, he's on the verge of getting yet another sizable payday from selling stock in a company he's sold once, bought once, and taken public twice. Shah's good fortune says a lot about how Silicon Valley has changed since he started the company with his wife in 1988.

Read more here.

Nvidia directors, execs cash in

2006-12-25T18:48:00.000-08:00

SHARE PRICE HAS DOUBLED SINCE SUMMER

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

It's been an eventful few months for Nvidia, full of good and bad news. Investors have largely ignored the negative news, sending the Santa Clara company's stock soaring.

Since the stock started a comeback in mid-July, six insiders have sold $87.65 million worth of Nvidia shares, including $74 million in December. So far in the current quarter, insider stock sales at Nvidia are running at the highest quarterly level in five years, according to information from Thomson Financial.

Read more here.

Yahoo COO didn't get `pink slip'

2006-12-18T03:52:00.000-08:00

ROSENSWEIG LEFT AFTER HELPING PLAN SHAKE-UP

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Last week's Insiders column noted that Yahoo chief operating officer Daniel Rosensweig ``got the pink slip.'' Not true, according to members of the Yahoo PR team.

A Yahoo spokesperson elaborated on Rosensweig's departure in an e-mail:

``Dan was asked to renew his long-term commitment to Yahoo as one of the leaders of the company,'' the spokesperson wrote. ``After five years, he made a personal decision not to renew a long-term contract, and to leave. He worked closely with the management team over the past few months on the new structure to align Yahoo for future growth.''

In other words, Rosensweig helped chart the recently announced Yahoo management reorganization but declined an offer to stick around. The company spokesperson said Rosensweig's responsibilities would not have been diminished under the new regime.

Still, Rosensweig's decision to leave comes just six months after he negotiated a four-year deal designed to keep him at the company through 2009. By leaving, Rosensweig is walking away from $500,000 in annual salary; a potential annual bonus of up to $1 million; and 2.1 million stock options with a strike price of $31.59 that vest over four years -- but only as long as he works at Yahoo.

After deciding to leave, Rosensweig and Yahoo negotiated a separation agreement. Terms were disclosed in a Dec. 8 filing Yahoo made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:

Read more here.

Nice payout for canceled options

2006-12-11T03:47:00.000-08:00

MERCURY INTERACTIVE ACQUIRED FOR $4.5 MILLION

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Hewlett-Packard of Palo Alto made a big bet last month when it paid $4.5 billion in cash to acquire Mercury Interactive. The Mountain View software company had become one of many Silicon Valley companies caught up in the stock option backdating scandal.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had begun probing Mercury Interactive in the summer of 2005. And by November 2005, the company's board found several executives had manipulated the grant dates of stock options and forced the resignation of Chief Executive Amnon Landan, Chief Financial Officer Douglas Smith and General Counsel Susan Skaer.

Bad news for them. But thanks to the acquisition, a dozen remaining Mercury insiders had much happier endings.

Read more here.

Execs cash in as Focus clings to life

2006-12-06T04:01:00.000-08:00

COMPANY SUFFERED NEAR-FATAL BLOW FROM MICROSOFT

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Focus Enhancements of Campbell is one of those Silicon Valley companies that flies below the radar for years, alternating between moments of promise and near death experiences. But such cases still provide at least a few insiders the chance to make tidy profits on their company stock.

More here.

Cisco stock making a new surge

2006-11-27T07:36:00.000-08:00

EXECUTIVES SELL $149.7 MILLION IN COMPANY SHARES

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Before Google became Silicon Valley's leading source of new millionaires, there was Cisco Systems.
As the San Jose networking company rose to prominence in the 1990s, its use of stock options and its rocketing stock price enriched legions of employees. Alas, the new century has not been as kind, even though it remains the valley's most valuable company by market value.
After plummeting in late 2000 and early 2001, Cisco's stock has bounced around the $20 range for the past five years. It enjoyed a strong run in 2003, topping off at $29.13 per share in January 2004, before stumbling again. Despite fairly steady growth, investors just seemed to shrug.
Since August, though, Cisco's stock has been making another big push, rising from $17.24 on Aug. 4 to $26.84 Friday. Whether it can sustain that momentum remains to be seen.
But insiders aren't waiting to find out. Ten Cisco insiders have sold $149.7 million in Cisco stock since Aug. 16. The $128.46 million sold since Sept. 1 -- the start of Cisco's second quarter -- marks the most quarterly selling at the company over the past five years, according to Thomson Financial. During that time, insiders sold an average of $28 million each quarter.

More here....

Insiders: Silver Lake's Seagate deal continues to pay off

2006-11-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News

Almost six years ago, a little known private equity outfit named Silver Lake Partners created a stir by spending $2 billion to buy esteemed disk drive maker Seagate and take it private. It was an incredibly complex deal that involved a Cayman Islands partnership and spinning off a Seagate software division to create Veritas Software.

While Silver Lake was a new name to most, its investors included an all-star lineup of tech heavyweights such as Oracle's Larry Ellison, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Dell's Michael Dell. And since then, the Menlo Park-based firm has grown to become such a formidable deal maker that it was included in a recent list of private equity firms contacted by the U.S. Justice Department as part of an informal probe into the firms' collaboration on leveraged buyouts.
But even now, Silver Lake continues to profit from the deal that helped put it on the map. Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 8, Silver Lake partner James Davidson, who sits on the Seagate board, sold 11 million of his firm's Seagate shares for $244.45 million.

More here...

Welcome

2006-11-19T19:30:00.000-08:00

This is a place where I'll post my weekly Insider Sales Column that I'm writing for the San Jose Mercury News. It runs each Monday on page 2A of the print version. Please enjoy and contact me with any feed back or comments. Here we go....