Nike confirmed today that Philip H. Knight, co-founder and Chairman of the Board, converted 5,700,000 shares of Nike Class A Common Stock on January 12, 2005 to the same number of shares of Class B stock. Knight also entered into a pre-arranged sales plan for the 5,700,000 million Class B shares following the guidelines of Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b5-1, and Nike’s policies regarding insider sales. Rule 10b5-1 permits officers and directors of public companies to adopt pre-arranged plans for selling specified amounts of stock.
The shares converted represent approximately 8 percent of Mr. Knight’s total direct Nike shares held. If these shares are sold under the plan, Mr. Knight would continue to retain direct ownership of approximately 92 percent of Nike’s outstanding Class A shares, and 25 percent of Nike’s total outstanding common stock. (These figures exclude Mr. Knight’s indirect interests in 16.6 million additional shares held in various charitable and family trusts, corporations, and partnerships.)
Mr. Knight said, “As I evaluate my long-term philanthropic and estate planning goals, this is a prudent time for me to prepare to diversify a small portion of my total assets. As I have stated before, I intend to be an active Chairman of the Board and it is my present intention to remain a controlling shareholder of Nike. I am committed to ensuring a smooth transition with our new President and CEO, Bill Perez. I have tremendous confidence in Bill and the entire management team. Under their leadership, Nike’s prospects are very bright.”
