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Why Eric Schmidt Is Really Selling $1.5B Shares

Google chairman raising money for divorce settlement: source

By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 23, 2012 10:44 AM CST

(Newser) – Eric Schmidt plans to sell 2.4 million of his Google shares—$1.5 billion worth—over the next year, recent filings show, and the Google chairman claims it's because he wants to diversify his investments and raise money. But rumors are flying that Schmidt is actually raising the cash to settle his upcoming divorce from wife Wendy. "He’s … working toward a transition and an amicable separation and settlement with his wife," a source tells the New York Post. "They are both very private, so they’re quietly dividing up assets without drawing attention. There’s been no paperwork filed."

Schmidt has been dating Lisa Shields, a top exec at the Council on Foreign Relations, for a year and a half, and the source says he spends a lot of time with her in New York and recently bought her a show-jumping horse.

Eric Schmidt, Arianna Huffington, and Wendy Schmidt attend NRDC's 13th Annual 'Forces For Nature' Benefit at American Museum of Natural History on November 14, 2011 in New York City. (Getty Images)

Dr. Eric E. Schmidt delivers luncheon remarks to the December meeting of the Economic Club of Washington, DC, December 12, 2011, in Washington. (Getty Images)

Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, speaks during a plenary session at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Keystone/Jean-Christophe Bott)

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Why Eric Schmidt Is Really Selling $1.5B Shares

Google chairman raising money for divorce settlement: source

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