A lot of companies stop issuing stock options when they get to a certain size. Part of the thinking is that the company is now a "safe bet" so there's no need t

A lot of companies stop issuing stock options when they get to a certain size. Part of the thinking is that the company is now a "safe bet" so there's no need to give employees a potentially large upside in exchange for staying around. Another reason for doing this is that stock options don't work well when the stock price (and company valuation) is already high. You end up with a big tax bill betting on growth that often doesn't come for already-highly-valued companies. You could spin this as being employee-friendly, but it's more about being pragmatic about the fact that the company probably won't be able to 10x its valuation like in the old days, and now views itself as "safer."