Apple Retail Vice President Jerry McDougal Departs

how much money do you have to make to quit your job for family? yes family is important but you need some source of income to support it

When people talked about "bean counters", I never thought they were talking about a literal guy. And he's from Finance, no less!

@house70: Typically, "spending more time with the family" really does mean just that. When someone is forced out for incompetence but not outright fired (with cause), they usually describe it as "pursuing other opportunities". The reason is simple: If he's forced out but is purportedly trying to spend more time with his family, then things get awkward if he starts looking for another job. The messaging alone could put the company at risk of a lawsuit because of a damaged reputation or whatnot.

He wants to sell his stock/options before its value go down further. When you are a high-position insider, there is restriction on sale of your stock/options. You have to leave the company to sell them before the stock price deep down.

@MKBL: Wrong. If he has insider information, then leaving the company does not suddenly allow him to sell with impugnity. Just ask Martha Stewart how that worked out for her when she sold as an "outsider" with insider info.

Executive insiders can sell - they merely have to do what's called a "planned sale". Basically, they announce an intention to sell at a future date in time - or even a pattern of dates. That future date is selected based upon when all currently-known insider info is expected to be either public or no longer material. They can even put rules on it, such as "Only sell when the price goes below X or above Y."

After certain period once he left the company- three month I presume-, he can sell all at once, without such hassles. If he bet on the projection that Apple is going down in the near future and he wanted to rake in certain profit before that would happen, the best thing he could do is to leave the company now, and sell the stock the first day that he can sell without restriction. That's not insider trading.

Now people are heading for the lifeboats before the iTanic goes down?

Kidding. That's a bit extreme.

If you've read my posts before, you know i'm no Apple-lover. But be realistic, Apple stock is not going to tank. Yes it has dropped significantly, but it's only the market correcting for what was a ridiculously over-valued stock to begin with. It's going to fall further before year's end, but it's still going to be a very valuable stock. Despite that, you probably don't want to be in this stock right now, because regardless of whether it nose dives or not, it's not going back up much, that's for sure.

It is hilarious to read up on hysterical investors on investing forums screaming at how this is all bullshit and it's a conspiracy to destroy Apple and so forth. Check out Rocco Pendola's pieces over at TheStreet...he posts multiple whiney articles every single day about how much of a travesty it is that Apple's stock is falling, and how Apple still "has no competition". There are some seriously deluded individuals out there.