Another sale of Micron Technology Inc. stock by a group including Idaho billionaire J.R. Simplot was a continuation of an earlier deal and not a sign he is losing confidence, Simplot spokesman Fred Zerza said.
A group including Simplot and an affiliated trust has sold off another 800,000 shares of stock in Micron, the computer-chip maker Simplot bankrolled."It was an extension of the original sale. They were just sold off at different times," Zerza said. But Micron shareholders are uncomfortable about the action's of the company's chief supporter.
"It makes me feel, at least for the short term, that he doesn't feel it's as good an investment as when he was touting it," Al Munio said.
Simplot told a group of analysts six months ago "I'm excited about Micron, and nobody's getting any of my stock."
Dow Jones News Service reported on Wednesday that a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said the group cut its stake in the company, based in Boise, from 6.6 percent to 6.2 percent.
The sale on July 17 for more than $14 million was conducted to raise money for the group, Dow Jones reported. The group still owns about 13 million shares.
Earlier this month, the same group sold 25 percent of its interest on the company because Simplot said he could no longer afford to lose money.
The decision came as the stock, which had exceeded $94 a share last September, continued to wallow around $20 a share as the bottom essentially dropped out of the international computer chip market.
Simplot said he remained confident in the future of the company, which survived a severe downturn in the 1980s that many other chip-makers did not, and his privately held J.R. Simplot Co. still owns nearly 13 percent of Micron.