2 MLP shareholders have option to sell soon

Two companies controlled by former executives of eBay Inc. and America Online Inc., who last year purchased $15 million worth of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. stock in a private placement, soon will be eligible to sell their shares on the open market.

But MLP corporate secretary Adele Sumida said yesterday that there has been no indication that the two stock owners are looking to sell those shares. As part of the private-placement agreement, MLP was required to file a form with the Securities and Exchange Commission within a year to register the shares. Once the SEC approves the registration, the shares could be sold on the open market or by any other means.

MLP said in an amended SEC filing yesterday that it was registering the 517,242 combined shares owned by Ohana Holdings LLC and ZG Ventures LLC. MLP's stock closed yesterday at $29, making the Ohana and ZG Ventures' holdings worth the same amount as when Ohana and ZG Ventures purchased the stock in March 2007. The combined holdings represent 6.3 percent of MLP's 8.2 million outstanding shares.

Ohana, which owns 344,828 shares worth about $10 million, is controlled by Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay and co-founder of Omidyar Network.

The managing member of ZG Ventures is Miles Gilburne, formerly senior vice president of corporate development of America Online, and a board member of MLP since May 2007. ZG Ventures owns 172,414 shares worth about $5 million.

MLP, which said it will not receive any proceeds from the sale of the stock, said at the time of last year's transaction that it was the company's first private placement in at least 24 years, and possibly the only one in MLP's then-37 years as a publicly traded company.

Shares of MLP had slipped 0.4 percent this year through yesterday and were down 14.9 percent over the past 52 weeks.