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The pre-IPO company I worked at was acquired by a large public company. The deal was closed about two months after it was announced. Exercised options and vest

The pre-IPO company I worked at was acquired by a large public company. The deal was closed about two months after it was announced. Exercised options and vested RSUs were paid out at a certain price per share. Unvested RSUs and options were converted to options and stock of the acquiring company, at proportional unit and strike price, with the same vesting terms. People with vested, but unexercised options were given a choice between exercising their options and getting cash after close, or holding on to their options and getting options of the acquiring company. The money transaction was handled by Computershare. Expect a large tax bill. You might get to learn how much stock top management owns. Except some unhappiness in the troops right after that announcement. Happy to answer other specific questions.

seattle_spring 5y ago
This was my experience exactly. Here are a few things to add: * The company was acquired for ~1B, but the amount of equity individual contributors had still came out to pretty paltry sums (~$20k over 4 years for more junior engineers, maxing out at maybe $200k over 4 years for staff+ level). * To make up for the uncompetitive equity buyout, they offered retention packages that seemed good on the surface. However, they were all backloaded: either on a 10/20/30/40 schedule or a 0/0/50/50 depending on amount. Almost all employees left before vesting most of their retention package, and no matter how you calculated it no one was being paid fairly versus what they could have made working from a competitive public company from the get-go.
- mavelikara 5y ago
  The deal I am talking about created some 400 millionaires among employees.
  - seattle_spring 5y ago
    Wow congrats. Out of our $1B stock buyout, there were 9 (nine) millionaires minted in the deal. The top one was very close to 9 figures.
    - mavelikara 5y ago
      Thanks! Aww, that is a very small employee option pool. Sorry to hear about the experience.

seattle_spring 5y ago

This was my experience exactly. Here are a few things to add: * The company was acquired for ~1B, but the amount of equity individual contributors had still came out to pretty paltry sums (~$20k over 4 years for more junior engineers, maxing out at maybe $200k over 4 years for staff+ level). * To make up for the uncompetitive equity buyout, they offered retention packages that seemed good on the surface. However, they were all backloaded: either on a 10/20/30/40 schedule or a 0/0/50/50 depending on amount. Almost all employees left before vesting most of their retention package, and no matter how you calculated it no one was being paid fairly versus what they could have made working from a competitive public company from the get-go.

mavelikara 5y ago
The deal I am talking about created some 400 millionaires among employees.
- seattle_spring 5y ago
  Wow congrats. Out of our $1B stock buyout, there were 9 (nine) millionaires minted in the deal. The top one was very close to 9 figures.
  - mavelikara 5y ago
    Thanks! Aww, that is a very small employee option pool. Sorry to hear about the experience.