M&A › Basics

The terms of your option grants, the terms of the M&A deal, and the valuation of your company's stock all affect the treatment of stock options in M&A. What happens to your unvested options is the main focus of concern.

Podcast included! When a company is merging or being acquired, many employees are left wondering what will happen to their unvested RSUs. While the outcomes for holders of unvested RSUs and current equity holders will depend on the terms of the M&A deal, if your company is being acquired there are a few things you should know about your restricted stock units and what may happen.

I was hired by Company X and received equity pay that might have been worth between $300,000 and $400,000 at our IPO. Not bad, except that we never went public.

It's important to know the difference, as this can trigger changes in your outstanding stock grants. An acquisition of a company occurs when...

Many factors can affect what happens. The senior officers of the two companies in the transaction (or their boards) and their attorneys negotiate how grants will be handled according to...

We have seen research suggesting that, at least in deals involving big acquirers, about...