Amazon chief sells $168 million in stock

Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos sold 2.15 million shares of stock last week, bringing him about $168 million. After the transaction, he still held about 97 million shares, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Three other executives or directors also sold shares or exercised options in the past week. The transactions were completed under a pre-arranged stock-trading plan -- called 10b5-1 -- that allows company insiders to make stock trades even if the insider possesses "nonpublic material information."

Material information is generally defined as knowledge that would be likely to affect a stock's price if the public knew about it.