Twitter's Top Brass Dump Shares In November, Costolo Slashed Stake By Half

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo alongside cofounders Jack Dorsey, Ev Williams, and Biz Stone at the NYSE when the company went public - photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

After posting a disappointing quarter that saw its shares fall more than 10% in a single day, Twitter 's top brass sold shares en masse. Throughout November, eight of Twitter's top executives-including Jack Dorsey, Ev Williams, and CEO Dick Costolo who slashed his stake by more than 50%-sold nearly $50 million-worth of stock. Leading the charge was cofounder Ev Williams, who sold $28.7 million worth of shares but still remains the largest individual stakeholder in the microblogging app.

November was a month of redemption for Twitter. Its third quarter earnings, released toward the end of October, hit the spot in terms of revenue growth (up 114% year-over-year) and profit (1 cent per share). The stock took a nosedive, though, on softer user engagement metrics and questions about its guidance. The stock essentially erased all its gains for the year and has remained flat ever since.

For many members of Twitter's upper echelons, it was time to cash out. The most striking sales came from Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, who sold more than 283,000 shares for about $11.6 million. 'What I lack in hair and 20/20 vision, I more than make up for in self-confidence,' Costolo told in the aftermath of their earnings release, 'I'll tell you that the team that I've got in place and the strategy that we've got, we love and believe in [...] we know that when we're successful, Twitter will be useful and vital to every person on the planet,' added a defiant Costolo a week before the selling began.

By far, the most active seller was Ev Williams, who unloaded 719,193 shares, and gave a stock gift of an additional 376,790 shares in November. One of Twitter's three cofounders, Williams has been concentrating on his social blogging platform Medium which recently announced a $25 million capital raise-it had been previously bankrolled by Williams and his partners. Williams raked in $28.7 million from share sales before tax, but still remains an important voice within Twitter: still sitting on the board, he controls nearly 55 million shares, or 9.3% of Twitter.

Twitter's most famous cofounder, Jack Dorsey, also sold some of his shares. The head of payment and transaction app Square cashed in on $2.1 million in Twitter stock, putting a very tiny dent on his massive 22 million-share stake.

Other executives that sold shares in November include Adam Baim (president of global revenues, who cashed in on $4 million of stock), Alexander Roetter (head of engineering, just over $1 million), Vijaya Gadde (general counsel, nearly $1 million), and Kevin Weill (VP of product, also just under $1 million).

While the company didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, reports indicated that stock sales were part of prearranged stock-trading plans set three months ago. What's troubling for Twitter, though, is that Costolo-the visible face of the company who is in charge of day to day operations-got rid of half his stake despite speaking of creating a Twitter that is 'useful and vital to every person on the planet.' Weeks after one of his top lieutenants mistakenly tweets about a potential acquisition, and with his leadership being called into question, it's definitely not a good time for Costolo to be selling so many shares, or for his global head of revenue to offload $4 million worth of stock.