After Dumping His Live Nation Stock, Irving Azoff Misses $18.7 Million In Gains…

Live Nation is a company renowned for its breathtaking financial losses, wildly-overpaid executives, monstrous debt, hostility towards consumers, and overbearing bureaucracy.  Which might explain why a legendary executive like Irving Azoff took a walk after just two years after “begging to get out” for more than one of those.

But Azoff also dumped a Live Nation stock that curiously started ascending the minute he left, thanks partly to a recovering concert market, a less-depressing economic environment, a big purchase by Liberty Media, and a surprising level of ‘enthusiasm’ on Wall Street.

Here’s what the stock has been doing since late-December, when Azoff announced his departure.  Azoff ostensibly dropped the holdings and quit before the end of the year for tax reasons.

lyvstockperformance

All of which means that as of late June, Azoff’s ‘tranche’ of options and shares have now elevated by nearly $19 million (and maybe, counting).   And here’s the painful math:

On December 31st, Azoff dumped more than 1.82 million shares at $8.24.

That was part of a broader year-2012 sell-off of about 2.6 million shares at an overall average price of $8.44.

At the closing bell on Thursday, LYV finished at $15.63.  So, $15.63 – $8.44 = $7.19.

And, $7.19 x 2.6 million = $18.694 million (in just 6 months).

More on the stock performance here; more on Azoff’s insider trading here.  Written while listening to Kenny Dope.

3 Responses

  1. Richard

    This is why management consultants are the biggest SCAM artists………they will can never admit the only thing wrong with a company is the president…..get rid of him and everything will work out fine

    cause they wont get paid.

  2. Dry Roasted

    Oh c’mon DMN please write the real article for once. This is just a classic pump n’ dump game,Wall Street will put this back in the crapper in two months after the accounts clear.

    • PiK

      Right I’m guessing this is just gaming the stock. Guess they forgot to tell Irving.