Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Selling $2.51 Billion of Stock

Former Google CEO and current executive chairman Eric Schmidt plans to sell 42 percent of his stock in the search engine company, which is valued at $2.51 billion.

The former Apple board member, who has 8.2 percent of the firm's voting power, currently owns 7.6 million shares of Google's Class A stock, with the executive hoping to sell around 3.2 million shares. Schmidt's plan to offload stock went into effect in November, but the first trade is expected to commence within 30 days, which may continue throughout 2013.

"The pre-arranged trading plan was adopted in order to allow Eric to sell a portion of his Google stock as part of his long-term strategy for individual asset diversification and liquidity," the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission reads. "The stock transactions pursuant to this trading plan will be disclosed publicly through Form 4 and Form 144 filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Using this trading plan, Eric can diversify his investment portfolio and can spread stock trades out over a period of one year to reduce market impact."

"As of December 31, 2012, Eric beneficially owned approximately 7.6 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock, which represented approximately 2.3% of Google's outstanding capital stock and approximately 8.2% of the voting power of Google's outstanding capital stock. Under the terms of this trading plan, Eric intends to sell up to approximately 3.2 million shares of Class A common stock."

A Google spokesperson said to CNET that "This is a routine diversification of assets and Eric remains completely committed to Google."

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