Eric Schmidt To Sell Over 40% Of His Stake In Google

According to an SEC filing, Google's Eric Schmidt will be selling about 42-percent of his stake in the company, for a total of 3.2 million Class A shares. The sale will take place throughout 2013 in order to avoid a large impact on the market. The former CEO is reported as having a total of about 7.6 million Class A and Class B common stock shares.

Per Google, this move will give the former CEO "individual asset diversification and liquidity." The sum total of Schmidt's shares account for 2.3-percent of Google's stock, which closed high today at $785.37. This follows his previous sale of approximately 1.8 million shares in 2012, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Once the shares are sold, Schmidt will then own 1.3-percent of Google, a fall from 2012's 2.3-percent, giving him 5-percent voting power in the company. These sales are following his departure from Google as CEO in early 2011, when he became executive chairman instead. The timing is good, market-wise, with the search engine giant's shares having increased substantially last year.

Schmidt has been a big force in Google, responsible for quite a bit of its growth during his time there. No word has been given on why he is selling his shares, aside from the statement from Google regarding diversification and liquidity. A Google spokesperson has declined commenting on the situation, so all we know for now is what the filing shows.

[via Wall Street Journal]