Snap employees will finally be able to sell their stock on Monday, more than five months after the company went public.
Snap co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy say they won’t sell any of their stock this year
It’s not surprising, but it’s still important.
Two current employees won’t be selling, though: Co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy. Spiegel confirmed as much Thursday on Snap’s quarterly earnings call.
“Given the amount of speculation around the lockup expiration, I feel it is important to note that Bobby and I will not sell any of our shares this year,” Spiegel said.
Spiegel’s announcement is important, but not surprising.
It’s important because Spiegel and Murphy own more than 420 million shares combined, almost $5 billion worth of Snap stock. The co-founders selling any of their stock — especially given that Snap’s stock price is near an all-time low — would be terrible optics for a company that is struggling to keep its stock price out of the cellar.
But Spiegel and Murphy already know that selling their stock would look terrible, and doing so would have been much more surprising than Spiegel’s promise to stand pat.
More importantly, they haven’t had to wait to cash out like other Snap employees. Snap’s co-founders each sold $272 million worth of shares during Snap’s IPO. That should hold them for a while.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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