Twitter Guru Ditching Stock, Shares Tumble

(RTTNews) - Social networking giant Twitter Inc.'s (TWTR) co-founder and board member Ev Williams is reportedly selling 30 percent of his stock for "personal reasons."

Williams, in a blog post, said, "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. 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."

Williams said that he had invested lot of money through his venture fund Obvious Ventures and has also donated a lot to charity and political campaigns over the past year. "I'd like to continue," he said.

Williams has sold about $4 million in stock this week, according to an SEC filing. He has also set up a 10b5-1 trading plan, which will allow him to sell at pre-determined dates moving forward to avoid any concerns over insider trading.

"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. 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," Twitter said in a statement.