Investors don’t always respond well to founder/CEO share sales, and tech firm Dicker Data (ASX:DDR) came under pressure this week, losing ~20% in two days after CEO David Dicker sold over $42m in stock.

After markets closed last night, Dicker himself made a somewhat unorthodox move with a direct statement to the ASX defending the sale.

He also revealed just what he’d be spending the money on:

  • “The final capital spending on Rodin Cars”
  • “Purchase of a used Bombardier Global XRS”
  • “A return to trading [in] the US Equity markets”

3D-printed fast cars, private jets and a few dabble funds for US stonks…

Hey, if we were the sexagenarian billionaire founder of a successful ASX tech company, we’d probably share his sentiments — it’s time to live a little.

Other market analysts had theories of their own for what prompted Dicker’s statement:

Take a chill pill

In the statement, Dicker admitted shareholders may’ve taken the sale as a bad sign but asserted they took it the wrong way.

“I am still the largest DDR [share]holder,” the Dicker Data CEO declared.

“This sale seems to have provoked a loss of confidence in DDR which is entirely unwarranted. It seems that people have read things into this sale that are just not there.”

The tech hardware, software and cloud distributor had a bumper year thanks to growing demand for its services amidst COVID-19. It surpassed $2 billion in annual revenue and more than doubling between September 1 last year and last Thursday (August 26).

Shares in the company fell by around 8% Friday, following news of Dicker’s share sale in afternoon trade.

And after another 11.78% plunge on Friday, the company felt the need to release a follow up statement.

But while he’s liquidated to stock to pay for some retirement-like activities, Dicker said talk of the demise of his involvement in the company was greatly exaggerated.

“My role is to build and maintain the structures that underpin our company and to work on large projects like the public float, the Express Data deal and very recently the Exeed deal,” he said.

“My ability to continue in this role is not impacted in the slightest by my sale of shares. I am 68 years on and could have retired many years ago.

“Instead, I choose to continue to work in the company I founded with the same passion I have always had.”

Dicker Data’s shareholder statement concluded reiterating that the CEO had entered into an escrow arrangement on his remaining shareholding until the end of this year.

Dicker Data (ASX:DDR) share price chart

 

Drop “entirely unwarranted”

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