Obviously if you are going to acquire a company it is to your advantage to have their stock as low as possible.
Now, if we really wanted to get creative here, we could argue that Company A won't buy out Company Z at the current share price. So perhaps desperate CEO of Company Z decides to manipulate his share price down so he can accelerate the process and go buy that yacht he's got his eye on for retirement. Of course since Company Z could set the price at $1 if they so chose, again, this is not a very likely scenario, but, hey, I supposed it could happen.
Lastly, just to reiterate, yes CEOs certainly can do things that greatly affect their share price. But I'm reserving the use of word "manipulation" to imply something sinister, like if a CEO put out bogus news to spike the price and then sold.
- Jeff |
