Andrew Wilson, the man in charge of EA Sports and newly in command of Electronic Arts' Origin digital distribution service, sold all of his shares in the company on Thursday, cashing out for about $687,000.
It's a curious move but it wouldn't appear that Wilson is going anywhere, and indeed a statement from an EA Sports spokesman says just that: "Andrew is the head of EA Sports and Origin. He has no plans to leave EA."
Wilson's rank is executive vice president, and Origin was added to his duties in a shake-up and reorganization the company put in place about two weeks ago. Running Origin is probably a bigger responsibility than just one of the publisher's labels; EA Sports, as I've argued, certainly is symbiotic to the software-as-a-service purpose that Origin intends to grow. The stock sale notwithstanding, this would be a strange time for someone getting that kind of promotion to bail.
Electronic Arts' stock price vaulted to a 52-week high at the end of the week, following news that EA and Disney had come to terms on an exclusive deal to make Star Wars-licensed games. Wilson sold his shares for $21.42 each, about $1.30 more than the stock's price on Aug. 4, 2011, the day he was announced as the head of EA Sports.
EA Sports Executive Vice President Sells All Stock [IGN]
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