Netflix CEO buys $1 million worth of Facebook shares
13 Aug 2012
Netflix's CEO and co-founder, Reed Hastings, has bought $1 million worth of shares in Facebook.
Hastings picked up 47,800 shares of the company at an average price of $21.03 according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Analysts say Hastings, who is also a member of Facebook board, appears to be bullish even as the company's stock which went public in May at $38 per share was trading at at $21.81 at close of Friday.
Hastings was granted 20,000 restricted stock units on joining the company's board in June 2011, but the shares have not vested yet; the purchase therefore marks his first stake in the company, they add.
Hastings is the only Facebook insider to have disclosed buying stock since the company's May initial public offering, which valued the company at about $100 billion. The valuation has since then been hammered down to $59 billion.
Typically, company stock purchases by its own executives or directors are seen as a vote of confidence, especially when the stock is sinking.
Facebook directors are not required to buy shares when they join the board, though Facebook's corporate-governance guidelines, encourage directors to own company equity.
In a statement at the time of Hastings' joining the board, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he picked Hastings as a director because "he has built a culture of continuous and rapid innovation, something we share and work hard to build every day."