Twitter co-founder and board member Evan Williams plans to sell up to 30% of his shares

Advertisement

Evan Williams

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Evan Williams.

Evan Williams, the co-founder and board member of Twitter, plans to sell a significant portion of his shares in the company, Business Insider has learned.

Advertisement

After Business Insider inquired about the shares, Williams posted a blog post explaining why he is selling his shares.

"After a year and a half of no selling, I have filed a new 10b5-1 plan to liquidate a minority of my TWTR over the next year," Williams wrote. "This plan kicked in on Monday. It actually pains me to be selling at this point, but this sale is all about personal context, not company context."

Complimentary Tech Event
Transform talent with learning that works
Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

Williams sold about $4 million worth of Twitter stock Wednesday, according to SEC filings, but that's just the beginning. He plans to sell up to 30% of his shares over the next few months. The sale would reduce his stake in Twitter from about 5% to slightly under 4%.

Williams will remain on Twitter's board, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

Advertisement

"Evan Williams recently entered into a pre-arranged 10b5-1 stock trading plan as part of his continued efforts to diversify his financial positions and focus on his charitable organization and other endeavors," the spokesperson said. "Ev, a co-founder of Twitter and member of the Board since 2007, has been a champion of Twitter since Day 1 and intends to maintain a significant ownership position in the company. The plan is not expected to result in the sale of more than 30% of Ev's holdings."

Williams also served as Twitter's CEO for a brief time. He stepped down in 2010. He's now the CEO of Medium, a blogging platform.

Visit Markets Insider for constantly updated market quotes for individual stocks, ETFs, indices, commodities and currencies traded around the world. Go Now!

NOW WATCH: The full story of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is much more awesome than you realize