When I was hired at Real the stock price was around $52-$54 dollars per share. I was given 10,000 shares in exchange for lower pay. Later the stock tanked, diving down to $9 per share.
Real then did what was viewed at the time as the coolest thing ever: The stock re-entrant program thingy (I forget exactly what it was called.) What it meant was that whatever the stock price was on August 31st of that year would be retroactively applied to our shares, including those that had already vested.
Rock on. Quite a few of us signed up for it on the promise of making our now-worthless shares valuable again. There was some fine print, of course. We had to remain employed at Real or we would lose all our stock, including vested shares.
The bastards fired us one month before the deadline. No warning. Our floor managers didn't even know until that morning that 15% of the entire company would be layed off that day.
I went out for lunch (yummy fish tacos!) and when I returned there was a group of employees and some security guards outside the front door. They weren't letting anyone in. After half an hour word spread that there were layoffs happening but we didn't have any details.
Finally a guy in a really expensive suit came down and told us to go home. We be getting a phone call later that evening to let us know if we still had a job.
The next day I was unemployeed and competing with 30,000 other out-of-work programmers in the Seattle area for jobs.
Now I'm back in Montana making $9/hr and eating a fair amount of ramen.
Well, it's unfortunate that you got fired, but if your options were originally struck at $52-54, then they'd currently be worthless, anyway, so you haven't lost anything. If you hadn't traded the options in, they still wouldn't have been worth anything.
Wow - how many options did you have vested at the time of the 're-entrant' plan? I'm schedenfreude-ianly (to coin a word) curious about how much you stood to gain before getting the boot.
God knows it's fun to talk about money with strangers... I had options with AOL worth $600K just before the merger with TW and all the smoke they were blowing lead us to believe that our shares would grow from the merger ("Think of the SYNERGIES!"). So like a jack-ass I held on to the options instead of exercising them be
As I pointed out in my previous post, he stood to gain zero dollars before the repricing, and zero dollars after since the share priced had dropped below the lowered price by that time. It doesn't even compare to your situation - you actually started with a great value which you lost.
Except that he took a pay cut. A pay cut. A cut in pay. He was getting paid less because of this deal. So yes, in the last month or so after opting for this tragic share plan he made less money. I should have asked him if he got two weeks severance pay at his reduced rate. haha.
But he was talking about vested OPTIONS, not vested stock. Vested options just means that the options can be exercised. Options can be (and in this case were) both vested (i.e. exercisable) and worthless (i.e. nobody in their right mind would exercise their "right" to buy stock at $50, when they could buy it in the market at $5).
Although this wasn't a good scenario (layoffs), you lost nothing from this. Why? Vested options expire after three months. Your old options was worth nothing, but neither were the new ones should you have received then.
Basically you're upset because you lost options worth exactly $0? I think it's rather you being upset about being laid off. One would have figured you'd been over it by now (stuff happens). Spreading ill words just as "payback" seems highly uncalled for. Bad timing? sure. Did it hurt you mo
'Key phrase: "I was given 10,000 shares in exchange for lower pay." And that was just the icing on the great big fuck-you cake.'
He took lower pay for these worthless share/options. This is like how AOL used to say that our great stock options plan was the reason our hourly rate was so horrible. Of course the merger screwed our stocks AND more recent options, AND we got to keep our
He chose to take lower pay in return for stock options. Those options vested at lower than their original value. Everything else: layoffs, re-pricing, etc., is a red herring. He chose to take a risk. He lost. Am I missing something?
Yes. You are missing something. If it was just "Taking a pay cut for options" (as you state) it would have been great. He and the other employees could have exercised them on 'Aug 31' as the op mentioned and they'd all be rich, yay. The offer was NOT a risk if you thought, in good faith, that your management wasn't going to fire you before the options vested.. Plans like these have two goals: reduce overhead by reducing payroll, increase employee loyalty by extending out the vesting date.
Jusdging by your story, I started consulting for Real just before you were hired. Disclaimer, I was hired fulltime by Real about a week after this layoff.
You took options instead of higher pay when they were trading $52-$54. At that same time they filled a book value with the SEC of about $2.80/share. So, you were banking on the idea that what Real said was worth almost 3 dollars was going to climb even higher than $54. Definitely the definition of a blind optimist.
The problem is that I'm good but I'm not brilliant, and I was competeing with many brilliant people for jobs. The severance package? Feh. It was okay, but not stellar. I stayed in Seattle searching for work until the money ran out, at which point I had to move back to Montana (since I have friends here and had a place to live while trying to find employment).
Montana does not have very good wages. At least I'm not doing phone surveys for minimum wage anymore. That was awful. Just one step above telemarketer
Hey Rob G... (Score:5, Funny)
That sucked.
Could you elaborate? (Score:3)
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:5, Interesting)
Real then did what was viewed at the time as the coolest thing ever: The stock re-entrant program thingy (I forget exactly what it was called.) What it meant was that whatever the stock price was on August 31st of that year would be retroactively applied to our shares, including those that had already vested.
Rock on. Quite a few of us signed up for it on the promise of making our now-worthless shares valuable again. There was some fine print, of course. We had to remain employed at Real or we would lose all our stock, including vested shares.
The bastards fired us one month before the deadline. No warning. Our floor managers didn't even know until that morning that 15% of the entire company would be layed off that day.
I went out for lunch (yummy fish tacos!) and when I returned there was a group of employees and some security guards outside the front door. They weren't letting anyone in. After half an hour word spread that there were layoffs happening but we didn't have any details.
Finally a guy in a really expensive suit came down and told us to go home. We be getting a phone call later that evening to let us know if we still had a job.
The next day I was unemployeed and competing with 30,000 other out-of-work programmers in the Seattle area for jobs.
Now I'm back in Montana making $9/hr and eating a fair amount of ramen.
Can anyone verify this story? (Score:2)
Re:Can anyone verify this story? (Score:2)
I'm kinda suprised that I haven't seen any posts from other ex-employees who also got fscked over during that layoff.
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:2)
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:2)
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
God knows it's fun to talk about money with strangers... I had options with AOL worth $600K just before the merger with TW and all the smoke they were blowing lead us to believe that our shares would grow from the merger ("Think of the SYNERGIES!"). So like a jack-ass I held on to the options instead of exercising them be
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
Sigh.
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:2)
As long as share price > 0, vested stock HAS VALUE!
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:2)
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
Basically you're upset because you lost options worth exactly $0? I think it's rather you being upset about being laid off. One would have figured you'd been over it by now (stuff happens). Spreading ill words just as "payback" seems highly uncalled for. Bad timing? sure. Did it hurt you mo
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
http://interviews.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=120 863&cid=10181632 [slashdot.org]
'Key phrase: "I was given 10,000 shares in exchange for lower pay." And that was just the icing on the great big fuck-you cake.'
He took lower pay for these worthless share/options. This is like how AOL used to say that our great stock options plan was the reason our hourly rate was so horrible. Of course the merger screwed our stocks AND more recent options, AND we got to keep our
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
He chose to take lower pay in return for stock options. Those options vested at lower than their original value. Everything else: layoffs, re-pricing, etc., is a red herring. He chose to take a risk. He lost. Am I missing something?
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:1)
It would be great
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:2)
Aw, don't feel bad. I disgust a lot of people! Why, they line up just to see how disgusted they can be!
The river-crying is going to be more difficult. I don't know if I can actually pull it off but I'll start drinking gallons of water right now.
*glug* *glug* *glug*
*splort*
MY SPLEEN! I'VE RUPTURED MY SPLEEN!
Be sure to finish the story (Score:2, Interesting)
You took options instead of higher pay when they were trading $52-$54. At that same time they filled a book value with the SEC of about $2.80/share. So, you were banking on the idea that what Real said was worth almost 3 dollars was going to climb even higher than $54. Definitely the definition of a blind optimist.
You also failed to mention the sweetest
Re:Be sure to finish the story (Score:2)
Montana does not have very good wages. At least I'm not doing phone surveys for minimum wage anymore. That was awful. Just one step above telemarketer
Re:Could you elaborate? (Score:2)
Care to come out of the AC closet?