> This is an amateurish and exceptionally stupid strategy, and a poor way to conduct business. I've never seen it come around to bite those who do it though. T

> This is an amateurish and exceptionally stupid strategy, and a poor way to conduct business. I've never seen it come around to bite those who do it though. The problem is one of power - the people affected typically are those earlier in their careers with less opportunity to say "no" to what looks like good employment, only to have part of their pay calculation ripped out with no warning. In the case of the CEO/CTO, it was even worse as the company was in talks for acquisition and the firing for equity ended up netting the CEO an additional six figures within a few months. And they certainly seem to be doing fine.