“Those who hold common stock, like employees who bought stock during or after their years at the company, will see their stock canceled under the terms of the agreement, making those investments effectively worthless.”
Get a securities lawyer, sue and then lob a bunch of state and federal complaints against any lawyers or bankers involved. Cancelling stock outside liquidation is bonkers.
How many employees who invested in your company lost their money and/or stock options as a result of this transaction?
A total of 10 former employees who chose to invest in Philz Coffee by buying common stock years ago at much higher prices than the current price of the shares will unfortunately lose the value of that stock. There are no other Philz Coffee common stockholders or broader group of Philz common stockholders who were affected by the transaction and no current employees are Philz common stockholders who were affected by the transaction.
Additionally, out of our approximately 1,500 current employees, 47 were granted stock options (the right to buy stock at a certain price in the future) in 2022 and earlier that are not exercisable based on the current price of the shares. Unfortunately, those options will expire per their original terms, but since the employees did not buy stock, they did not lose any money.
Didn’t something weird and similar happen in the Skype sale to Microsoft where Silver Lake abused some technicality and left many common stock holders with nothing?
Why in the world would the executive even want to stay after all this nonsense and mistreatment has been reported? I think I would bury my head in shame…I think. Hold my beer, Andy Byron, I will screw the entire company. SMH!
JumpCrisscross|6 months ago
Get a securities lawyer, sue and then lob a bunch of state and federal complaints against any lawyers or bankers involved. Cancelling stock outside liquidation is bonkers.
orionsbelt|6 months ago
Edited to Add:
Yeah, the above seems right. This seems like standard fare. See the below FAQ from https://philzcoffee.com/stakeholderfaqs:
How many employees who invested in your company lost their money and/or stock options as a result of this transaction?
A total of 10 former employees who chose to invest in Philz Coffee by buying common stock years ago at much higher prices than the current price of the shares will unfortunately lose the value of that stock. There are no other Philz Coffee common stockholders or broader group of Philz common stockholders who were affected by the transaction and no current employees are Philz common stockholders who were affected by the transaction. Additionally, out of our approximately 1,500 current employees, 47 were granted stock options (the right to buy stock at a certain price in the future) in 2022 and earlier that are not exercisable based on the current price of the shares. Unfortunately, those options will expire per their original terms, but since the employees did not buy stock, they did not lose any money.
SilverElfin|6 months ago
SilverElfin|6 months ago
bb88|6 months ago
People often take lower pay in a startup to get equity, but because it's "common" it can be zero'd out to nothing. On the premium shares matter.
fnord77|6 months ago
Without exception, every startup my friends and I have worked at that got acquired dissolved the common stock and made the options worthless.
Invictus0|6 months ago
gnabgib|6 months ago
And subsequent: Philz Coffee sold to private equity firm Freeman Spogli for $145M
Blackfield415|6 months ago
Blackfield415|6 months ago