CA: How Portal insiders reaped huge windfall (The Insiders

John Little of Portal Software cover is profiled in this 1999 Forbes Special Issue: America's 400 Richest People.

The executives and board members of Portal Software have had more success selling their stock than they have running the company.

Since Portal of Cupertino went public in May 1999, 21 insiders have cashed in $704 million in stock. During that time, the company has sold only $616.2 million of its billing software and services.

Part 2 of a 3 part series on Insiders in Silicon Valley companies.

Part 1 at the Mercury News

Yesterday's CA: Rich man, poor economy (The Insiders) Part 1 article. If you have access to the newspaper copy, there's a lot more info then shown online.

I'm not criticising you for posting it, but this is a bad article.

They're trying to confuse you. They're saying that he sold $127m worth of shares, and now he only has 35m shares. Of course 127m of shares at $30/share is only about four million shares, and the odds are pretty good he sold most of them for much more than that.

In other words, there's little doubt that he's kept most of his shares, and he most likely sold what he did to diversify. As I said in my response to yesterday's article, this is smart business and shouldn't reflect poorly on him or anyone else.

It is possible, though, that Goldman overhyped the stock. The real responsibility, though, always rests with the investor who agreed to buy. Unless you can prove outright fraud, everyone winds up clean, and the investors hold the bag.

I think it's important to note that the investors would have lost big regardless of whether Little made a lot or not. The article implies that because he got rich, investors lost their shirts. Actually, investors would have lost their shirts whether he got rich or not. In fact, his sales probably lowered the stock price slightly and therefore made it somewhat cheaply for people to buy, decreasing their losses.

In the end, Little simply had shares and sold them. That's not a crime, and surely I would think you'd agree that it should not be one.

D

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