Posted on 01/18/2013 9:01:18 PM PST by Steelfish
Al Gore Nets Another Fortune on Apple Stock By Javier E. David Former U.S. vice president Al Gore recently netted a huge payday by selling his cable station. Now, it appears he's making another big profit buying Apple's (AAPL) stock on the cheap.
Al Gore According to a filing with the Securities and Exchanges Commission, Gore -- a director on Apple's board -- exercised an option to purchase nearly 60,000 shares of the tech giant at the bargain basement price of $7.48, costing him a total of about $445,000.
But with Apple's current market price at about $500 a share, Gore's holdings are worth $29.75 million, giving him a huge windfall-on paper at least. Gore, however, could easily afford to buy Apple's stock at the prevailing market price.
In early January, the environmental crusader sold his Current TV venture to Qatar-based news organization Al Jazeera for $500 million. Published reports say the sale of Gore's 20 percent stake in the network - worth an estimated $100 million - would bring his net worth to about $300 million
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
One can make a good living as a climate huckster these days ...whoddathunkit?
It’s a pay off. Ought to be illegal.
Maybe he thinks the economy will bust.
he invented the internet
Likely, he was on their board at some point back right after he was VP and on the take. They gave him options to buy stock at that price as payola..
Now he’ll be able to make get started on that 100,000 s.f. addition to his garage.
Considering that this is a conservative website, the number of folks going around bellowing socialist the socialist point of view on this thread is staggering.
Gore obviously has been holding some options for decades and finally exercised them. What is there about this that makes it newsworthy? He didn’t add a dime to his net worth - the options were valuable before he exercised them. He didn’t do anything illegal or stupid (this time).
There has been a lot of talk lately about “low-information” voters. On this thread we have seen a lot of “low information” posters. I hope our conservative voting is not as “low information” as some of the stuff I have been reading here.
“...apparently Gore is trying to raise money and/or knows something that the general public/markets dont know (insider trading?).”
From a financial perspective and as an ‘insider’, it only makes sense to exercise options like this if you know the stock is about to take a pounding and you expect the ultimate settling price of the stock to be BELOW the option price.
If you expect the stock to rise, you’d more likely leave the option dormant, as there is no reason to exercise, unless there is some major tax implication. Since he didn’t do this prior to January 1st, it’s not likely a tax concern.
Some options are granted with expiration dates. That may be a contributing factor.
It used to be that options grants to directors were reported to the SEC in regular filings. Might be worth taking a look to see what information is filed, relative to Apple stock option grants to directors. That might shed some light on this.
On the other hand, though he is a hypocrite of the first order, it’s not wrong to give him a hat tip and a “Good on ‘ys” for making out like a fat rat at the banquet of the wealthy. With the same breath, though, it’s required to tell him to go away and leave the rest of us alone.
Isn't this a lie? Wasn't the whole point it was late December? So that he could avoid Obama's tax increases?
He can be the richest man on earth, but his sad eyes reveal misery.
I agree - Al Gore did nothing illegal. “We done it all nice and legal!”
Jeez - you must aspire to be a crony capitalist.
He’s probably saving up to harass more masseuses for extra services.
Maybe he should reconsider the now that albore has netted a fortune of Apple stock?
Exactly.
Stock options are a common way of a company attracting/paying an executive.
The company pays the executive a salary, maybe below prevailing rates, and sweetens to deal with stock options.
Kinda like ‘profit sharing’ but possibly on a much grander scale.
They don’t always pay off, rarely to this magnitude.
Apple appears to be in a happy bubble now, what with its iPhones nand iPads, and maybe Al Gore thinks he would rather get 9/10 of the theoretical maximum profit possible than play with the market and lose when the globe soon catastrophically warms and he has to move to Antarctica to survive... only slightly sarcastic of course
A rising tide lifts pirate boats too
Options.
He was on the Apple board for a while and part of his compensation was stock options, which obviously never expired. It is not uncommon. Long ago, I was a regional director for a Fortune 200 company. At the time, due to cash flow issues, all of our bonuses were paid in stock options. I exercised them 12 years after the fact, and made out like a bandit.
He needs the money to buy himself a new chakra.
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