That is true but not fully relevant in the following respects; they (the execs) typically plan ahead for things like this by filing their papers indicating their intent to sell early on, knowing that, then, something's available to dump if & when the time arises. I too don't believe this would qualify as insider trading because he's reacting to public reports while his CBS insiders try and convince him & everybody that their story is true. The only way insider trading would apply in this case IMO would be if, internally, admissions & recognition were that the story was false and they were conspiring to mislead the public and investors. In this case and think Rather, Mapes et. al. are still lying to themselves as well as everybody else, including Redstone, but he came to another conclusion by himself. The next quarterly filing must loom large for Redstone with the mandates of new corporate finance regulations & Redstone is going to have to assure all the facts & other warnings are disclosed properly as he'll have to sign the bottom line, lest he then get the SEC after his tail. I would imagine just the apparent impropriety of it all won't stop the likes of trial lawyers to pursue a class action shareholder lawsuit regardless (simply because that's what they do). Maybe that's why John Edwards can't be found on the campaign trail ... he's readying his next big gig following the election ROFLMAO
Dear Steven W.,
I'd been under the impression that once they file with the SEC to sell, they pretty much have to sell.
Also, these shares represent less than four tenths of one percent of Mr. Redstone's holdings in this class alone.
I'm unconvinced this represents a reaction to current events, rather than a timed sale of some shares to gain a bit of pocket change.
I do think, though, that Viacom is likely to face class action lawsuits from shareholders contending harm done to the company due to the criminal/civilly-liable activities of key employees (President of CBS News Andrew Heyward and Chief Lunatic Blather), and the failure of senior management to act to protect the company from harm from their illegal/actionable activities.
sitetest