tippet, re the Ford Foundation, the more I think about this (a dangerous thing to do with this stock, eh?), the more odd this looks. As of 3/1/98, according to the proxy, Ford Foundation wasn't even a "beneficial owner" of 5%, much less 10%. I doubt they are now either since that would amount to around 5 million shares. I suspect that, if we had access to the full details of this 144 filing, we would see that some other 10% owner, perhaps Bezos, had somehow transferred the shares to the foundation which then immediately sold them. It could have been a charitable donation, but if you had a billion dollars, would you give a million of it to the Ford Foundation? Not me. To my college perhaps (if they named a building after my mom and gave me lifetime hoops tickets), but not Ford. Another possibility is that a 10% owner did a "share swap" via their broker and Ford was on the other side of the swap, selling the AMZN shares they received. Just speculation, but a neat way of quietly disposing of some shares.
Not that any bulls would care... Bezos could sell all his shares and the AMZN bulls would find some way to spin it as a positive.
Sidelines for now.
Bob |
