Brin, Page To Sell 10 Million Shares Of Google Stock

Sergey Brin and Larry Page are going to become much closer to their financial advisors over the next five years.  Google disclosed in a regulatory filing late last week that the cofounders each intend to sell about 5 million shares of the company's stock during that period of time.

To address one possible concern: This is no way signals that Brin and Page are abandoning Google.  Even after the 10 million shares are sold, the pair will still own 47.7 million shares between them, so it's not like they're cutting all ties and going home.

Also, even though their voting stake will be reduced from 59 percent to 48 percent due to this move, Eric Schmidt controls another 10 percent, so there's no danger of the three Google execs getting overthrown.

Still, the development is a big deal.  Miguel Helft calculated, "The sales, if completed, would provide each of the founders $2.75 billion based on Friday's closing price of $550.01."

Google's stock is down 1.15 percent so far this morning.  The Dow and Nasdaq are up 0.71 percent and 0.58 percent, respectively.

Have You Read This?

> Wall Street Turns Nose Up At Google Earnings Report

> Analysts Give Google Thumbs Up For Diversifying

> Nexus One Sales Of 5-6 Million Units Forecast

Facebook Stock Maneuver Feeds IPO Rumors

Consider yourself forewarned: the official line is that "Facebook has no plans to go public at this time."  Just the same, a financial maneuver the company's performing has raised a few eyebrows since it seems to point towards that possibility.

Jessica E. Vascellaro reported this afternoon, "The company is in the process of converting all current shareholders to Class B stock, which carries ten times the voting power of Class A stock . . . .  Those shares will remain Class B shares unless the owner sells them during an initial public offering, at which time they will become Class A shares . . ."

This sort of exercise helps ensure that existing stockholders retain control of a company regardless of what happens on an open market.  In Facebook's case, Mark Zuckerberg, who owns many, many shares, would benefit most.  (Important note: It's not necessarily an "evil" move, though, as Google did the same sort of thing for the sake of Sergey Brin, Larry Page, and Eric Schmidt.)

So what we have here is one more piece of evidence (remember the preexisting enthusiasm surrounding its stock?) that Facebook could be headed towards an IPO.

Even if Facebook doesn't have definite plans to go public, the recession at least hasn't completely scared the company away from the idea, then.

Have You Read This?

> (Private) Facebook Shares Up 42% In Four Months

> Facebook Catapults Into Third Place Among Video Sites

> Facebook Most Widely Used Network Among Businesses

Wojcicki, Brin Give $500,000 To Creative Commons

People who don't really believe that Google wants to make the world's information "universally accessible and useful" will, going forward, have a more difficult time arguing their point.  Yesterday, Creative Commons announced that it's received a $500,000 gift from Anne Wojcicki and Sergey Brin.

Wojcicki is the cofounder of 23andMe and Brin's wife.  And Brin, of course, is the cofounder and president of Google.  One interesting question is exactly whose checkbook the donation issued from; a post on the Creative Commons blog always puts Wojcicki's name first when naming the pair.

A relevant point is that Fortune pegged Brin's net worth at $12 billion in mid-March.

But anyway, Melissa Reeder, a development manager at Creative Commons, responded to their donation by writing, "We are delighted that the couple recognizes the importance of Creative Commons and has decided to invest in our work to support sharing, collaboration, and the spread of knowledge and creativity."

Reeder then continued, "This gift - made in addition to the financial support that Google offers CC annually - will be used to support Creative Commons generally, with a focus on developing our Science Commons project, which Wojcicki and Brin are particularly excited about."