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Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?

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Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?

#31

Post by angelbob »

bdittmer wrote: post #21

Perhaps there should be a "Haven't had an exit or IPO" so we can get a sense for how rare these events are?

That'll need to be a different poll, partly because I've worked for a number of startups and only had one exit - in general, we'll need to vote in some other way to get a feel for that.

Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?

#34

Post by bstewartnyc »

indrekju wrote: post #14

"None - my stock option vanished and don't own any". What does this mean? How stock options vanish?

If options are "underwater" at the time of acquisition, it can be part of the deal that acquiring company does not need to honor those, and they are basically deleted. That happened to me, when options at a public company were acquired by another public company. All the vested but underwater options were simply deleted. When share price rose at the acquiring company my options would have been worth $600,000+. Oh well... ;(

Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?

#36

Post by jen_h »

I voted three times...but this is missing a negative entry - you know, the scenario where you pay an obscene amount of taxes on the ridiculously inflated price of your shares when you exercise (and can't sell yet while awaiting a liquidity event), but the shares are later downgraded to 1/10th taxable estimate...so you get to hold on to that loss for years, hoping at some point to be able to be in the position to write off the tax loss! Yay, equity! ;)

Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?

#38

Post by jdfreefly »

At the time I didn't realize how rare this was, but the company was sold for cash, all options were accelerated to vest at close and people were payed with a check.

There was a 50/50 chance we could have grown the company to be very cashflow positive (ie - we sold too soon) and there was a 50/50 chance we would have folded (ie - we sold at just the right time). We were bought for our novel technology and the engineering team was for the most part kept around and given good incentives to stay on for a bit.

That job and the acquisition kind of launched my career so I don't spend too much time worrying about whether the CEO or the board pulled the trigger too early.

Re: Poll: How much did you earn from your stock options during exit?

#39

Post by eli »

asshammer wrote: post #11
manuscreationis wrote: post #10

Can there be a "Company folded, stock options got bought out from under me without my consent for pennies to give to the people who were buying the remains of said Company" option? If so, price it at $200 dollars, and i'll vote for it. On one of my final days I was handed a check for my shares, because I wasn't going with the new owners, and all stock was to be given to them. Was never asked if I wanted to sell, and…

How is that legal?

Well, how much do you think shares in a bankrupt company should be worth? If there's not enough money to go around, someone is going to get left with the short stick.
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