2y ago

Unity bosses sold stock days before development fees announcement

www.eurogamer.net

Unity bosses sold stock days before development fees announcement, raising eyebrows

Unity bosses sold stock days before development fees announcement::Unity executives sold thousands of shares in the weeks leading up to last night's hugely controversial announcement it …

Gaming @lemmy.ml

onlooker @lemmy.ml

2y ago

Unity bosses sold stock days before controversial repricing announcement

www.eurogamer.net /unity-bosses-sold-stock-days-before-development-fees-announcement-raising-eyebrows

Games @sh.itjust.works

nanoUFO @sh.itjust.works

2y ago

Unity bosses sold stock days before development fees announcement, raising eyebrows

www.eurogamer.net /unity-bosses-sold-stock-days-before-development-fees-announcement-raising-eyebrows

Games @sh.itjust.works

geosoco @kbin.social

2y ago

Unity bosses sold stock days before development fees announcement, raising eyebrows

www.eurogamer.net /unity-bosses-sold-stock-days-before-development-fees-announcement-raising-eyebrows

60 comments

Sounds like insider trading to me
- The stock is down 5.5% today. It's down 6% from a week ago.
  The stock is up 0.5% from a month ago, and up a whopping 32% from 6 months ago.
  It's down 50% from five years ago.
  What I'm getting at is that this announcement has very little movement on the stock price overall. Unless these bosses were clearing out their inventory thinking this news would kill the company, its possible these sales were normal transactions.
  
  The financial impact of this decision is entirely speculative at this stage. Unity's next quarterly earnings report won't be impacted by it. The market is attempting to price in losses that haven't yet occurred. We won't know how it affects stock price for awhile
  
  So it's only kind of insider trader because it's only 5%?
  
  "Normal transaction" after a fundamental change in how all games that use your product are financially responsible by novel, unmeasurable, and unrealistic metrics. No transaction prior to this kind of announcement is "normal" imo.
  
  Why would executives sell shares of their own company in any case?
  I could imagine selling a handful of shares to finance a big purchase like a house, but otherwise they shouldn't ever be cashing out while they're in charge. If they think they're serving the company, they should be holding onto their shares.
- All trading by corporate officers is, by definition, "insider trading".
  But as long as they did it at the appropriate times (usually windows after earnings calls iirc) and file with the SEC it's fine.
  
  We're gonna tank the company for money, everyone in this room sell all your stock over the next x months.
  X months pass and the last sale of stock happens legally
  Time for that announcement, send it.
  
  https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rule-10b5-1.asp
- Nope, just a scheduled sale of a minute portion of his held shares which he receives as part of his compensation and a minuscule amount of shares outstanding. He's sold over 50k shares this year, this is just a normal thing.
- Has any executive uh ever been prosecuted for insider trading after stock buybacks?
  
  Lol
- CEOs and CFOs on occasion have protections against insider trading stuff.
  
  Got a source on that?
If you're ever worried that these corporate assholes are never punished for their blatant shady behavior, don't worry. They have to deal with raised eyebrows which we all know can be super embarrassing.
- I dunno, if a government cares enough to look into this then the corpos might get some VERY sharp slaps on their wrists.
Sounds illegal to me.
- unfortunately there is a massive loophole that allows them to do this. what they do is set up sell orders at regular intervals (once a month or whatever) for months or years in advance. then when they decide they dont want to sell, they just cancel the order which is totally fine for them to do for some reason. if they do want to sell they just let the order execute and if anyone asks, they set it up a year ago and there is no possibility that the current decision could have influenced them into making that sell order a year ago.
  
  I guess it would be best to change the rules so that they cannot trade their company stocks at all while working there and a reasonable period beyond. I think some legislations already restrict floating stock like that but I'm no expert on the matter.
Installed Godot yesterday and it's starting to grow on me, I like it. Looking forward to a huge movement of studios over to Godot, which will hopefully speed up the development of Godot through further support. Is there any reliable source of data about which game engines are popular at the moment? I want to see that sweet sweet decline in Unity user base over to Godot.
- I found steamdb.info. According to them Godot seems to be growing steadily.
- I really love Godot, it's great. I actually switched to it before I even knew what open source was simply because it's way nicer to use.
  
  What types of games do you develop? I just started gamedev as a hobbyist earlier this year, so I'm by no means an expert in the field. I'm not into 2D games, I very much prefer 3D. What scares me is that I don't see that many well made 3D games in Godot out there. It's mostly 2D. Nonetheless, the engine seems to be capable of doing about the same of what Unity offers. I hope I'll be able to soon reach the same level of proficiency in Godot and support the growth of 3D community.
- Amazing, we need more competition on the market. It's never good to let big corporations run a monopoly.
How's that even legal.
- Usually people at a company are not allowed to sell stock except during special windows. For people at the very top it's restricted even further where they need to essentially plan to buy/sell stock well in advance. Essentially there is a huge delay to any stock decisions. So these sell offs were likely decided far in advance and once locked in cannot be changed.
  For more details read https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/rule-10b5-1.asp
  
  the sale might not have been shady if scheduled, but the timing of the announcement which they have complete control over IS shady as fuck.
  
  So basically it can be "legit" if they schedule the sale for a year out and the announcement for a year and a day...
- You can regulate the stock market as much as you want but it's a flawed concept.
Ex EA CEO btw fyi
- Makes absolute sense!
  
  He's literally the micro transactions guy. He's cancer.
It'll be my ignorance, but how are you allowed to own stock in the company you're on the C-level of? Wouldn't your direct control of the company, and the ability to buy and sell stock, be seen as insider trading?
- Many company boards (of which CEOs sit at) have requirements where they must vest a minimum dollar amount into acquiring company shares. The purpose of this is to ensure they have an interest in the success of the stock and thereby the success of the company.
  These same companies will then additionally have blackout periods typically 30 days before the announcement of quarterly earnings where employees are restricted from selling shares.
  Not sure what unity's board rules are but if they are a public company it should be in their investors materials, annual reports, etc
  
  Hard to see selling stock, as an executive, as confidence inspiring.
- If they own shares, then they want the company to succeed. A better question is "why are they allowed to sell those shares until they quit?" And the answer to that question is that everyone with enough power to change this also enjoys the current system.
Get fucked, use Godot
So they knew damn good and well the announcement was gonna cause the stock price to drop?

60 comments