4 ms·
What will happen to employee’s stock options if they all mass quit and moved to Microsoft? The options will be worth $0, right?
by didip 3y ago
What will happen to employee’s stock options if they all mass quit and moved to Microsoft?
The options will be worth $0, right?
- stingraycharles 3y agoFrom what I understand, Microsoft realizes this and gives them the equivalent of their OAI stock options in MSFT stock options if they join them now. For some employees, this may mean $10MM+
- ssnistfajen 3y agoMore evidence the layoffs are 100% BS. Suddenly there's surplus headcount and magical budgets out of nothing, all to accommodate several hundreds of people with way-above-market-average TCs. It's almost like they were never in danger of hurting profit margins in the first place.
- quickthrower2 3y agoYou can lay people off without being in dire straits.
- ssnistfajen 3y agoYes, but that doesn't make it any more ethical especially since most layoffs over the past year aren't merit-based at all.
- mcherm 3y agoIt is entirely reasonable for there to be dire financial straits that require layoffs, yet when a $10 billion investment suddenly blows up and has to be saved the money can be spent to fix it. In the first case it wasn't that there was no cash in the bank and no bank willing to make loans, but that the company needed to spend less than it earned in order to make a profit. In the second case it wasn't that the money had been hidden in a mattress, but that it was raised/freed-up at some risk which was necessary because of the $10 billion investment.
- dralley 3y ago>It is entirely reasonable for there to be dire financial straits that require layoffs It's not entirely reasonable because Microsoft's finances are public. We know they're doing fine.
- ssnistfajen 3y agoThese tech giants' finances are public, because they are publicly listed companies. All of them are sitting on fat stacks of cash and positive YoY revenue growth. They have absolutely zero chance of running out of money even if each one hires 10000 front desk clerks who do nothing but watch TikTok all day and collect $100k/yr comps. Zero, Zilch, Nada.
- JumpCrisscross 3y agoOptions on Microsoft stock, a publicly-traded and stable company, are incomparable to those on OpenAI, which didn't even bother having proper equity to start with. The employees will get hosed. They never got equity, they got "equity." The senior ones will need liquidity, soon, to pay legal counsel; the rest will need to take what they can get.
- stingraycharles 3y agoUsually one would go borrow money from a bank with the shares / options as collateral in these types of cases if you really need the money for legal expenses without liquidating them.
- tsunamifury 3y agoOpenAI has no stock options.
- tempestn 3y agoIt has "Profit Participation Units", which are another form of equity-like compensation.
- choppaface 3y agoBelieve it’s more of an RSU product with a small few having ISOs. Probably best to just call it “stock comp” since it’s all illiquid anyways.
- az226 3y agoMicrosoft would likely match their PPUs at the tender offer valuation.
- Rastonbury 3y agoHonestly MS don't have to, losing more than half the employees will destroy the value of the PPUs. The fact so many have signed the petition is a classic example of game theory. If everyone stays, the PPU keep most of their value, the more people threaten to leave, the more attractive it is to sign. They don't have to love Sam or support him Edit: actually thinking about it, the best outcome would to be go back on the threats to resign, increasing the value of PPUs, making Microsoft have to pay more to make them leave OpenAI
- lumost 3y agoMSFT may perceive a benefit in absorbing and locking down the openAI team. Doing so will require large golden handcuffs in excess of what competitors would offer those same folks.