The owner of leftist news outlet the Daily Beast, his stepson, and a friend are being looked into by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after “a lucky bet” saw the trio net approximately $60 million in unrealized gains in their decision to buy roughly $108 million worth of Activision stock options four days prior to the Microsoft acquisition.

In short, the three big-time Democrat donors are suspected of engaging in insider trading.

On January 14th, Daily Beast owner Barry Diller, his stepson Alex von Fürstenberg, and his friend DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen decided to purchase call options, Activision Blizzard, at $40 a share.

Between the close-knit trio, they opted to shell out $108 million collectively on these shares of a company that had in recent months been embroiled in controversies regarding sexual misconduct (ironically heavily reported on by Diller’s outlet the Daily Beast).

Then, a mere four days after the three decided to pour in over $100 million in stock options of a company not experiencing the best of press cycles, Microsoft agreed to acquire the video game company for $69 billion.

Said development wound up rewarding the three handsomely in the realm of unrealized gains, but also caught the eye of the SEC – as suspicions were raised that this effort may have involved some insider trading.

However, according to Diller, this was noting more than “a lucky bet.”

“It was simply a lucky bet. We acted on no information of any kind from anyone. It is one of those coincidences.”

Diller further asserted the aforementioned sentiments via a statement released through his media company IAC, claiming that he and his two cohorts simply believed that Activision Blizzard “was undervalued” and opted to act coincidentally days before the Microsoft acquisition.

“None of us had any knowledge from any person or any source or any anything about a potential acquisition of Activision by Microsoft. We acted simply on the belief that Activision was undervalued and therefore had the potential for going private or being acquired.

“And, if we had any such information, we would never have traded on it. It strains credulity to believe we would have done so three days before Microsoft and Activision made their announcement.”

As if the timing wasn’t curious enough, the reality that Diller happens to be a friend and colleague of Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, as the two have served on the Coca-Cola board of directors, is certainly going to raise some eyebrows in this probe.

 

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