Intel Aware of CPU Flaws Before CEO Brian Krzanich Planned $24M Stock Sale

[Raevenlord]

The news and details on Intel's most recent chip flaw have been coming in almost faster than news outlets can put them out, and it just seems that the company is going through a phase where news are seldom good. New information has come to light that paint Intel CEO's Brian Krzanich's sale of $24M worth of stocks in November 24th in a negative spotlight, euphemisms be allowed. We (meaning, this editor) previously dismissed the share sale as a pre-planned event that didn't show any kind of shady wrongdoing in the face of news breaking out regarding Intel's VM security flaw. However, it seems as if it pays off to be negative rather than positive in the world at large, and the skeptic in me is saying "serves you right".





Apparently, Intel had known well in advance of the vulnerability's existence - sources peg the news has being broken to Intel by Google itself, who informed the blue giant as early as June 2017 regarding the existence of a security flaw on its chips' design. It's understandable the company might want to keep the bug's existence - and details - under wraps, to allow development of a solution before malicious attackers could take advantage of it.

However, what isn't understandable is how Intel's CEO set the stock sale's date to November 24th in October - at least four months after the company had taken wind of the issue's existence. Some interesting details on the sale now also make sense - Intel CEO Brian Krzanich sold the maximum amount of shares in the company he could, keeping only the mandatory 250,000 minimum shares that come with his position at Intel. In total, Brian Krzanich's sold shares totaled 245,743 shares of stock he owned outright, and 644,135 shares he got from exercising his options. So, the man sold around 80% of his Intel shares while the company (and he himself, surely) knew the flaw would become public knowledge soon enough. There's not even a vestige of shadiness in this whole issue, for sure.

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[the54thvoid]

Tech aside, you gotta love capitalism.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Ouch the player,,,, i would wager a new Ceo could be on the way at intel soon ,as he's clearly got a lot of faith in himself winning the competition and increasing intels margin ,not.

 

[Raevenlord]

Tech aside, you gotta love capitalism.

It's kind of a love/hate relationship, to be honest. "Lesser evil" and all of that. Though sometimes I wonder if that's really true.

 

[eidairaman1]

Evil is evil no matter how you slice it, i see stock holders putting pressure on intel now especially the firing of the CEO, CTO

 

[Space Lynx]

Evil is evil no matter how you slice it, i see stock holders putting pressure on intel now especially the firing of the CEO, CTO

Won't change anything, they will just get another shady CEO and write him a under the table severance pay in the millions for "resigning"

 

[evernessince]

Whelp, this is a pretty clear cut example of insider trading.

 

[Tartaros]

It's kind of a love/hate relationship, to be honest. "Lesser evil" and all of that. Though sometimes I wonder if that's really true.

We can consider this comment as heresy nowadays.

 

[Vya Domus]

i would wager a new Ceo could be on the way at intel soon ,as he's clearly got a lot of faith in himself winning the competition and increasing intels margin ,not.

Or better yet , put someone in charge that will make Intel great again and crack on with those billions in payments to OEMs for old times' sake.

 

[trparky]

It's only Insider Trading when you don't tell the government beforehand. If you tell them you're fine. Funny how that shit works.

 

[Vayra86]

As far as I've read these stock sales were a planned thing that just occurs once every while, so its probably just (happy) coincidence.

It does add a nice bit of flavor to the burn on Intel.

 

[jaggerwild]

Who's to say the so called patch won't allow spying?

 

[Vayra86]

Uhm wrong thread? This is about stock sales, not the patch/MeltdownSpectre stuff

 

[RejZoR]

Isn't it against the law to sell stocks like this while withholding insider information from public? I know I've heard something about this being in a conflict with the situation...

 

[ensabrenoir]

.....does intel need an exorcism or an intervention? Cant tell if their under attack from evil forces or are they trying to "end" themselves......You could literally make a poster of how to destroy a company by chronicling their last few business decisions.......just...... wow

 

[lexluthermiester]

As is detailed elsewhere, these problems are not exclusive to Intel CPU's and in November, it is unlikely that the seriousness and gravity of the problem was known to the CEO's of any company, let alone Intel. My money is on government knowing about this and, having used it, knew they were gonna get caught and "arranged" for the information to go public. Makes wonder what other exploits exist that have not been made public..

 

[GenericAMDFan]

Tech aside, you gotta love capitalism.

It beats communism/socialism that's for sure, unless you like some authority figure taking away your money.
Just ask the average north korean.

 

[john_]

Krzanich sold ALL of his shares and kept only the number of shares which he was obliged to keep. This is what makes his move look really bad. Selling shares at the end of November could be something that he does every year. Don't really know. But selling ALL he could, that's bad. That's really bad.

 

[Casecutter]

Tech aside, you gotta love capitalism.

Only if subjugated by laws and justice, then it's not "capitalism" and more like a ruling class on steroids.

 

[cdawall]

Krzanich sold ALL of his shares and kept only the number of shares which he was obliged to keep. This is what makes his move look really bad. Selling shares at the end of November could be something that he does every year. Don't really know. But selling ALL he could, that's bad. That's really bad.

Unless he already knew his time was up. Intel prior to this stuff still wasn't doing phenomenal.

 

[mroofie]

It beats communism/socialism that's for sure, unless you like some authority figure taking away your money.
Just ask the average north korean.

+1

 

[Vya Domus]

Krzanich sold ALL of his shares and kept only the number of shares which he was obliged to keep. This is what makes his move look really bad. Selling shares at the end of November could be something that he does every year. Don't really know. But selling ALL he could, that's bad. That's really bad.

To be honest this kind of shit probably takes places everywhere and people get away with it all the time since I would imagine this is pretty hard to prove.

 

[Static~Charge]

Intel CEO's logic: Get it right + Get it wrong = More money for me

 

[john_]

Intel CEO's logic: Get it right + Get it wrong = More money for me

Get it wrong, repeat a few times(14nm, 14nm+, 14nm++, 14nm+++++++), then get it right and sell a boat load of processors to all those customers who bought the, not so secure, processors.

 

[Space Lynx]

It beats communism/socialism that's for sure, unless you like some authority figure taking away your money.
Just ask the average north korean.

@mroofie

Communism I agree with.

Socialism, I disagree. Ask your average person from Finland how they like their government?

Oh btw, we are ranked 2nd in math and science behind only South Korea/Japan. America is ranked 18. Pure Capitalism is doing well for you I hear. Old people cutting their pills in half because they can't afford it, what a sad life. Such things don't exist in Finland, everyone has peace of mind healthcare and medicine and university and basically crime is non-existent. Socialism is lovely. People still need to work and contribute to a free market society, of course. So I also agree communism is bad.