Recent problems seem to be piling up for Microsoft; a $1 billion band-aid to extend the Xbox 360 warranty to 3 years and Peter Moore leaving the company for rival Electronic Arts. So what else can be worse? How about some rumors of possible scandalous insider trading?
According to PC World, Robbie Bach, President of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, sold 200,000 shares of Microsoft stock before his announcement of the "unacceptable number of repairs" for the Xbox 360. The shares equaled to around $6.1 million and accounted close to 20% of his holdings.
Back in early July, Bach released comments saying that the Xbox 360 had problems with its design and hardware; this was before the announcement of the extended warranty.
In addition, he stated that Microsoft was aware of the problems for several months, "This set of issues wasn’t visible at all for the first year and more… the past couple of months, we’ve seen a significant increase in call volume, repair volume and attention from people."
Still, Bach appears to be safe from possible accusations of insider trading. Ben Silverman, director of research at InsiderScore, stated, "There’s so much scrutiny of Microsoft that it would be very surprising if there was some kind of questionable insider activity." Also it’s normal for top executives to sell shares at scheduled intervals in order to protect themselves from accusations.
