Virginia-based enterprise software company MicroStrategy has captured the attention of crypto and financial news outlets alike with its CEO\u2019s atypical strategy of going all-in on Bitcoin, beginning in 2020, with some reporters quipping that the company has since morphed into something closer to a Bitcoin (BTC) investment vehicle than a software firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recent filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission suggest some of the company\u2019s top-level executives are ambivalent about pursuing this strategy long-term.<\/p>\n
The filings reveal that MicroStrategy chief financial officer Phong Le and chief technology officer Timothy Lang both unloaded stock in August of this year by exercising roughly 30% of the options they received as compensation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Bloomberg reports, Lang exercised 10,000 of his awarded options on Aug. 26 and later sold all the converted shares, pocketing roughly $7.1 million. Phong, for his part, exercised 20,000 options between Aug. 2 and 6 then sold the shares in return for a little over $7.3 million. Each has held on to roughly 20,000 options.\u00a0<\/p>\n
CEO Michael Saylor himself has not sold any shares since 2012, although he did reallocate 50,000 shares of Class A company stock to another of his firms, Alcantara LLC, this January.<\/p>\n
The report notes that, while exercising options is commonplace for executives, Phong and Lang\u2019s moves were made without a pre-arranged trading plan. Matt Maley, chief market strategist of Miller Tabak + Co., has claimed that the decision may be indicative of their concerns about the long-term viability of Saylor\u2019s corporate strategy and his commitment to tying the company\u2019s fate so closely to that of Bitcoin. \u201cSenior executives do not sell stock if they think it\u2019s going higher. It\u2019s just a bad sign no matter how you slice it,\u201d Maley reportedly said.<\/p>\n
As of June 30, 2021, MicroStrategy held an approximate 105,085 BTC, with Saylor doubling down on his crypto strategy in late July by pledging to continue to amass more BTC. Earlier in June, the firm had announced a $400-million debt raise to expand its Bitcoin treasury holdings, and in August, MicroStrategy added a further 3,907 BTC to its holdings, bringing its total to 108,992 BTC, at a cost of $2.918 billion to the company.<\/p>\n