This study investigates whether the information content of insider transactions, with
a focus on sell transactions, is different for high growth, high volatility Internet-based
firms. Prior research on more traditional firms has found a small, but significant
negative abnormal return with insider sells, which points to an association of insider
sells with negative information about the firm by outsiders. We employ several
models to examine over 1,000 inside transactions for more than 100 NETDEX firms to
find that for Internet firms, insider sells are not followed by a significant negative
abnormal return. Firm size effects differ between the different methods employed. In
conclusion, it appears that while insider sales in traditional firms are motivated by
information asymmetry reason, insider sales in Internet firms are not. We conclude
that Internet firms are different indeed.