I heard they started issuing restricted stock units instead of options three years ago. They are rights to stock, like a risk-free, cost-free stock option. No

I heard they started issuing restricted stock units instead of options three years ago. They are rights to stock, like a risk-free, cost-free stock option. Now, allegedly, the twist is that they vest when the company becomes public. In any case, the company presumably has a right of first refusal clause on their stock, which means that Facebook can match any stock buyer's offer themselves, or broker a trade to someone else instead. That's only in case of emergencies, though. A lot of other companies did so around that time, since this was following the accounting standards change which required options to be expensed. If you're going to expense options, you might as well expense something more flexible.