It’s called stock options. At some point he must have been granted/given/paid in stock options - that is, the option to purchase stocks at a particular price.
So he sat on it until now - apparently Gore is trying to raise money and/or knows something that the general public/markets don’t know (insider trading?).
Everyone knows, Apple is going down bigtime. He is excercising his options to get out.
Maybe he thinks the economy will bust.
“...apparently Gore is trying to raise money and/or knows something that the general public/markets don’t 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.