How do public company owners really make money?
 

How do they turn being rich on paper into action on the streets?

I see That Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are listed as the most wealthy and powerful 2 men in the United States. http://www.forbes.com/2002/09/13/rich400land.html

How do they harness this power? Have their companies right big checks to get things done? What if your position was small enough that you didn't have the power to right checks for whatever you wanted, and only could use your own personal money. How would you turn your stock into power?

If you have an extremely successful privately held company, what is the advantage of going public?

I hear that you can only sell so much of your position in your own company a month, and that you must disclose the activity in advance at least a month, and when you do, the stock price goes down. (Along the lines of, "If he won't invest in his own company, why should !?")

Thus, the only way to take the giant multiples that the market gives you and turn them into money would be to slowly publicly disclose and liquidate your position, or buy things with the stock, or trade the stock for other things of value...

http://biz.yahoo.com/t/62/412.html

Look at the billions of dollars he made selling his shares.

:)

WOW. It looks like he took out about 500 million in august alone. Does anyone know the rate you can liquidate your holdings?

At a market sustainable rate. He doesnt want to dump too many shared on the market at once, or the price for them will drop out.

So, as you see, he block trades them probably to various institutional accounts.

wow - that´s a lot of money. Interesting link

Maybe we can do like the URSS? And distribut all the Bill's cash all over the GFY's members? Hahaha what a good idea!

Good points. There is also a very strong correlation to many of insider sales to the stock being at a top, as in if the boss is selling, then he must think the stock won't appreciate too much more. Many investment strategies are tied around insider buying or selling of the stock.