ServiceNow founder Fred Luddy sells $13.2m stake in 'defining enterprise software company of the 21st century'

ServiceNow's unstoppable showman CEO, Bill McDermott, has been telling anyone who will listen that the business's "destiny" is "to become the defining enterprise software company of the 21st century". But founder Fred Luddy either seems to have missed the memo or is not quite believing the hype. He has sold around $13.275m in …

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't blame him(?), it's worse than the 1st bubble.

There was a lot of extremely overvalued web companies 20 years ago, but to me and due to their lower volume then, the current bubble is just insanity. It is clear to me that people just want to ignore reality because they're too invested and don't want to be "that guy". What is very worrisome is however they must have corrupted the system both legally and financially to sustain such an illusion that the foundation of not just ethical but also practical business is forever decayed. Once practicality is lost, is it officially everyone for themselves?

A line from the movie Coming to America (Eddie Murphy): "Fuck you, fuck you and fuck you. Who's next?"

[Cederic]

Re: Can't blame him(?), it's worse than the 1st bubble.

We don't even know how many shares he holds.

Is it feasible for a founder to hold 1% of shares? That would mean he's liquidating around 3% of his holdings; hardly a sell-off.

Or maybe he just wants some spending money. Or to retire. He could even just be planning a very large and expensive party.

I'm not seeing this as major commentary on the state of ServiceNow. Their annual report and the actions of their customers are a rather better guide.

[teknopaul]

Re: Can't blame him(?), it's worse than the 1st bubble.

The only reason anyone sells stock is because they think the money is better spent elsewhere.

Better spanking it on a party (even in 2020, the year when no one goes to parties) than leaving it in ServiceNow.

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Re: Can't blame him(?), it's worse than the 1st bubble.

"The only reason anyone sells stock is because they think the money is better spent elsewhere."

True. I sold a bunch of shares and bought a groovy sailing boat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Can't blame him(?), it's worse than the 1st bubble.

Ah yes, the 2001 tech bubble, when you, me and a dog was enough to raise millions on a 2 pages ppt, for something impossible to develop. Lol.

One dude of my then team chose to invest any penny he owned into this. 2 years after, he was not that happy :)

Good times.

[Stumpy]

According to this site: https://gb.wallmine.com/people/42171/frederic-b-luddy Fred makes a substantial sale of his shares every two to three months. My money is on this just being a top up of his cash reserves. Maybe he needs a new Learjet or something?

[Anonymous Coward]

Insider trading....

...to avoid it, the named members of boards of directors make pre-programmed sales of their stock awards.

Usually, they flush their last award away over multiple transactions spread over the year - to spread bet the sale price.

Perfectly normal, absolutely above board and doesn't/shouldn't scare the horses.

You might ask yourself whether flushing stock to cash doesn't show a lack of confidence in the board's ability to keep the company rolling, but its still super common, especially when the board are small scale stock holders....

For SNOW, the shareholdings are like this:

0.77% % of Shares Held by All Insider

98.93% % of Shares Held by Institutions

This is all public data....https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/NOW/insider-transactions?p=NOW

Why did El Reg write a Wall Street story without using a Wall Street commentator....