Cannon-Brookes to be largest Atlassian shareholder as Farquhar sells down

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A 25-year pact of equal control between Atlassian’s co-founders will end as Scott Farquhar sells a huge slice while Mike ... Read More The post Cannon-Brookes to be largest…

New documents reveal Mike Cannon-Brookes is set to become Atlassian’s largest shareholder. Pic: Getty Images

Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes will for the first time in 25 years emerge with a bigger shareholding in Atlassian than co-founder Scott Farquhar, new documents reveal.

Atlassian chief executive Cannon-Brookes plans to purchase about US$250m ($363m) of Atlassian stock in the next six months, an Atlassian filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

The same filing said Farquhar plans to sell about $760m of his stock under what is known in the US as a Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement.

“The plan is part of Mr. Farquhar’s long-term strategy for individual asset diversification and liquidity,” the document said. “Under the plan, the sales will be spread out until the plan’s expiration date, in order to reduce market impact on any given day.”

The moves, both of which will unfold in a series of small transactions and result in more than $1bn difference in the holdings of the pair, mark the first time in Atlassian history that the duo will not have equal control over the business they started from scratch in 2002 after meeting at university.

Mike Cannon-Brookes is now sole CEO at Atlassian. Pic: John Feder, as appeared in The Australian

The book Tech Bros, released earlier this year, detailed the breakdown in the working relationship between Cannon-Brookes and Farquhar and how the pair fell out before Farquhar’s departure from the co-CEO role in 2024.

He has maintained the same shareholding, and therefore control, in Atlassian as Cannon-Brookes since.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Stockhead. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.