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Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

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21–30 of 93 posts

Re: Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

#21

I don't understand what people expect in this kind of situation. The company was bought for around the amount of money that they took in investment, or less. Why would the employees get anything? If preference didn't exist, and I could take $10M in investment at $100M in valuation, and then the next day liquidate the company, return $1M, and keep $9M, obviously that would just mean that nobody would invest in startup…

I had the same thought -- Amazon bought the assets of a failing company. The failure may not be the fault of the employees, but employees almost always lose when a company fails.

Re: Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

#22

I don't understand what people expect in this kind of situation. The company was bought for around the amount of money that they took in investment, or less. Why would the employees get anything? If preference didn't exist, and I could take $10M in investment at $100M in valuation, and then the next day liquidate the company, return $1M, and keep $9M, obviously that would just mean that nobody would invest in startup…

In some sense it would be more "honest" if the company was completely wound down and then the top 10 employees got hired by Amazon or something like that. But yeah, the result would be similar.

Re: Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is founders won regardless of which side the coin landed on and the employees got screwed. I hope stories like this continue to break, and potential startup employees internalize the economic reality of working at a startup.

>potential startup employees internalize the economic reality of working at a startup. Treat your salary as your total income and equity as a lottery ticket?

Nailed it. Also, loyalty only to yourself. You are a mercenary, seeking the highest total comp you can, ready to move jobs on a whim.

Re: Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

#25
post #8

This really makes me feel for the employees and extremely distrustful of stock-option focused payouts.

I think Delaware can further help here. They've been very willing to expand their securities laws in favor of disclosures for employees compensated in securities of private companies. And VC backed companies still incorporate there (even though none of these companies ever really need the court of chancery), but it is nice that the legislature is expanding their own regulations.

Right now employees are offered stock options at arbitrary fractions of a percent, and forced to put a smile on their face because of the "generous offer" "bigger than others" that you got. And not everyone gets options, and not every industry gives routinely gives you ANY exposure to the success of the company. SO SMILE AND DON'T COMPLAIN. But the employee has no transparency into:

The liquidation preferences of existing shareholders

The valuation of the company per round, if the company decided not to brag about it

How that relates to the strike price of the option

What the option pool even looks like, dilution necessary to support it if at all

and of course, has to consider coming up with the actual money to purchase their exposure to the company, even without any of this transparency

If you issue the right or interest in a security to employees, they should have transparency. Delaware can do that.

Re: Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

#26
post #18
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's the right way to think about it. Everyone got "screwed" on equity, including the founders. Separately Amazon decided to set up packages for employees they thought were to valuable to lose. If an early employee was valuable enough they were probably included in the 10 who received it.

I am so confused, were the owners just idiots about judging the value of the sale? There is no reason that all the stockholders should have voted to approve this sale unless they were going to walk away with something to pad their pockets so... did some majority shareholder sell out to amazon and get some separate remuneration? I feel like that should definitely be illegal. Edit: Oh, so the founders assumed they'd be…

Man, I sure wish someone would screw me over with a high-six-figure cash bonus like they did those founders.

Being poor is having no idea what that reality might seem like.

Re: Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

#27
post #22

I don't understand what people expect in this kind of situation. The company was bought for around the amount of money that they took in investment, or less. Why would the employees get anything? If preference didn't exist, and I could take $10M in investment at $100M in valuation, and then the next day liquidate the company, return $1M, and keep $9M, obviously that would just mean that nobody would invest in startup…

In some sense it would be more "honest" if the company was completely wound down and then the top 10 employees got hired by Amazon or something like that. But yeah, the result would be similar.

As far as I know, Eero is still a running business unit. You can still buy Eero stuff. I don't think that Amazon wanted to wind the company down and do a pure aqui-hire. If they had, they presumably would have paid less.

Re: Amazon bought Eero for $97M and employees still got screwed

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>potential startup employees internalize the economic reality of working at a startup. Treat your salary as your total income and equity as a lottery ticket?

Nailed it. Also, loyalty only to yourself. You are a mercenary, seeking the highest total comp you can, ready to move jobs on a whim.

If only the IRS felt the same way. Any income should be treated the same when it is realized as currency, none of this bogus taxation on unrealized gains when your equity doesn't have liquidity.

That way we could exercise our options as they vest, instead of holding out until an event to get some liquidity. It keeps people trapped.

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