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You're being downvoted because you either misunderstand the issue, or are deliberately misrepresenting it. This is not a matter of exchanging unvested stocks f
by redthrowaway 15y ago
You're being downvoted because you either misunderstand the issue, or are deliberately misrepresenting it.
This is not a matter of exchanging unvested stocks for something of greater or equal value. This is a matter of Pincus telling a number of employees to give up their stocks, in exchange for nothing, or be fired. That's likely illegal.
Your solution to this is that they should roll over and accept this blatant breach of their contracts, giving up the one financial incentive they ever had for joining a startup, why? To preserve harmony? For the greater good of the company?
That, sir, is why I and others downvoted you.
- grandalf 15y agoIt's not rolling over if the sacrifice is needed for the company to succeed. If Zynga can't continue to grow then maybe everyone's shares will turn out to be worthless. That's where the greed factors in.
- rhizome 15y agoWhat do you call a company that can't grow without reneging on contracts with its own employees? Hint: the word is typically an ethnic slur.
- cpher 15y agoFYI, to renege is actually medieval latin, but I digress.
- zem 15y agoi think he was alluding to the phrase "indian giver"
- epo 15y agoWell the origin of the term came because when Indians gave a gift they expected something equivalent in return or their gift back, i.e. it was bartering rather than gifting (OK, the source is Wikipedia so this is probably specious). So Pincus is genuinely an Indian giver if the options are only being clawed back from people who underperformed. Of course there would be documentation predating the clawback threat which identifies such underperformance.
- rhizome 15y agoI was thinking more along the lines of "gyp" (sorry).
- zem 15y agothere are a surprising number of racial epithets for the same concept (or perhaps not so surprising). "welsh" comes to mind too, though i was in my 20s when i realised it had racist origins and was not just a homonym.
- danssig 15y ago"Indian giver" isn't an ethnic slur. It's actually attacking the people who came over, promised the native americans land and then took it back when they found out it was valuable.
- biot 15y agoThe answer is to create more stock that they can use for options. This is unfavorable because it means Pincus would need to sacrifice by diluting his own shares. So instead he forces others to sacrifice by diluting theirs or be fired.
- grandalf 15y agoWould this leave him in an equivalent position with respect to future fundraising, control, etc?