Free Republic

SolarWinds’ longtime CEO, Kevin Thompson, had months earlier indicated that he would be leaving at the end of the year as the company explored spinning off one of its divisions. The SolarWinds board appointed his replacement, current PulseSecure CEO Sudhakar Ramakrishna, on Dec. 7, according to a financial filing, a day before FireEye first publicly revealed the hack on its own system and two days before the change of CEOs was announced. It was also on Dec. 7 that the company’s two biggest investors, Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo, which control a majority stake in the publicly traded company, sold...

Internet giant Google's stock has soared since it went public almost two years ago -- and that has created a windfall for state government coffers. California took in a record $11.3 billion in personal income tax receipts in April, $4.3 billion more than it collected last April. It's almost certain that a significant chunk of April's haul came from Google employees -- perhaps one-eighth or more of the tax receipt gain. The fact that a single high-flying Silicon Valley company is giving such a big boost to the state treasury can be determined by examining insider stock trading information filed...