<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Glenn Chan&#039;s Random Notes on Investing]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://glennchan.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[GlennC]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://glennchan.wordpress.com/author/glennchan/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[John Malone&#8217;s insider&nbsp;trading]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve been trying to figure out why Malone sold shares of LMCA a few days ago.  (I don&#8217;t have a great answer.)  A year ago he bought a smaller number of shares in LMCA at prices very similar to his recent sale.</p>
<p>Note that you should not necessarily read too much into Malone&#8217;s insider trading.  In the market panic of 2008/9, you should have bought Liberty Capital (to make several times your money) despite Malone&#8217;s massive insider selling (due to a suspected margin call).  Some of his trades represent an immaterial portion of his overall stake in that particular company.  He may be simply &#8220;painting the tape&#8221; in the hopes that other people read too much into insider trading.</p>
<p>Here is a compilation of John Malone&#8217;s insider trading based on <a href="http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&amp;CIK=0000937797&amp;type=&amp;dateb=&amp;owner=include&amp;count=40">his SEC filings</a>.</p>
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<p>In general, he has sold shares (with low voting power) in <em>every</em> company that he owns: LMCA, STRZA, LBTYK, ASCMA, LINTA, LVNTA, and DISCK.</p>
<p>July 29, 2014 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 65,156 shares of <strong>LMCA</strong> at $48.5927.  Sold 134,258 shares of <strong>LMCK</strong> at $47.1722.  Equivalent to selling LMCA at $142.94 before 2 shares of LMCK were distributed for every share of LMCA.  Proceeds of <strong>$9.5M</strong>.</p>
<p>June 24, 2014 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 74,890 shares of <strong>LMCA</strong> at $133.5315.  Proceeds of <strong>$10M</strong>.</p>
<p>June 2, 2014 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 100,000 shares of <strong>LBTYK</strong> (class C, non-voting) at $43.157.  Proceeds of <strong>$4.3M</strong>.</p>
<p>May 13, 2014 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 100,000 shares of <strong>LBTYK</strong> at $41.7782.  Proceeds of <strong>$4.2M</strong>.</p>
<p>February 18, 2014 &#8211; Entered into agreements with the CEO of Discovery/DISCA (David Zaslav) and Liberty Global (Michael T. Fries), granting them voting and purchase rights to Malone&#8217;s supervoting B shares.  This suggests to me that Malone thinks highly of their skills as business operators, has no intention of <em>ever</em> replacing them, and really likes them.  Greg Maffei and Michael George (CEO of QVC but not Interactive/Ventures) did not get such deals.</p>
<p>Dec 23, 2013 &#8211; Swapped 745,816 shares of LMCA for 678,015 shares of LMCB with <span style="font-size:small;">Robert Bennett</span> (and his wife).</p>
<p>November 26, 2013 &#8211; Exercised options for 331,332 shares of LINTA early (May 29, 2014 expiration, strike price $21.84).  Disposed 289,295 shares at $27.6.  I presume that the shares disposed paid for both exercising the options (cashless) and taxes.<br />
November 26, 2013 &#8211; Exercised options for <span class="FormData">16,583</span> shares of LVNTA early (May 29, 2014 expiration, strike price $56.91).  <span class="FormData">Disposed 11,927</span> shares at $120 (cashless exercise).</p>
<p>October 25, 2013 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> <span class="FormData">351,734</span> shares of <strong>ASCMA</strong> at <strong>$93</strong>.  He basically sold half of all shares owned by his family (himself, wife, daughter, son).  After the sale, his family owned 351,734 shares.  Proceeds of <strong>$32.7M</strong>.</p>
<p>July 8 and 9, 2013 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 134,000 shares of <strong>DISCK</strong> (class C, non-voting) at an average price of $75.29 for proceeds of <strong>$10.1M</strong>.</p>
<p>July 8, 2013 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 341,000 shares of <strong>LINTA</strong> at an average price of $23.2509.  Proceeds of <strong>$7.9M</strong>.  <strong>Sold</strong> 57,000 shares of <strong>LVNTA</strong> at an average price of $89.92.  Proceeds of <strong>$5.125M</strong>.  Adjusted for the 2:1 split, the shares were sold at an average price of $44.96/share.</p>
<p>July 8 and 9, 2013 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 160,000 shares of <strong>LBTYK</strong> at an average price of $75.66 for proceeds of <strong>$12.1M</strong>.</p>
<p>July 8 and 9, 2013 &#8211; <strong>Sold</strong> 204,000 shares of <strong>STRZA</strong> at an average price of $24.36 for proceeds of <strong>$5M</strong>.</p>
<p>June 19, 2013 &#8211; <strong>Bought</strong> 15,458 shares of <strong>LMCA</strong> at a price of $129.37 (may be a private purchase???).  <strong>$2.0M</strong> in total.</p>
<p>June 7, 2013 &#8211; &#8220;entered into a long-dated post-paid variable forward sale contract with an unaffiliated counterparty relating to a maximum of 1,100,000 shares of <strong>Liberty Global Inc.&#8217;s Series C</strong> common stock, divided into 20 equal components that mature on sequential trading days over the period beginning on August 17, 2017 and ending on September 14, 2017&#8243; (<a href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/937797/000112760213019833/xslF345X03/form4.xml">form 4</a>)</p>
<p>November 2, 2012 &#8211; Gave 17,750 shares of <strong>DISCK</strong> as a &#8220;bona fide gift&#8221;.</p>
<p>December 17, <strong>2012</strong> &#8211; Exercised deep-in-the-money options for 167,459 shares of LINTA early (December 16, <strong>2015</strong> expiration, strike price $2.65).  Disposed 82,383 shares at $19.24 (cashless exercise).<br />
Exercised deep-in-the-money options for 8,370 shares of LVNTA early (December 16, 2015 expiration, strike price $6.89).  Disposed 3.982 shares at $62.57 (cashless exercise).</p>
<p>December 17, 2012 &#8211; Exercised deep-in-the-money options for 41,721 shares of series A Liberty Capital early (December 16, 2015 expiration, strike price $3.57).  Exercised options for 15,133 shares (same expiration, $29.54 strike price).<br />
689 shares of LCAPA were disposed at $112.62 in a cashless exercise.<br />
26,440 shares of LCAPA were disposed at $113.92 in a cashless exercise.<br />
Liberty Capital (LCAPA) would later distribute shares of DTV and split into STRZA and LMCA.October 1 to December 13, 2012 &#8211; <strong>Bought</strong> several million dollars of <strong>ASCMA</strong> shares.  The share purchases are described over multiple filings.</p>
<p>*Dates refer to the transaction date, not the SEC filing date.<br />
**I chose not to go further back in time.<br />
***In the future I may update this post with more of Malone&#8217;s insider trading.</p>
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