DISQUS

Nate · 2 years ago

Hate to be so pissy with you, but since when are you a qualified technical stock analyst?

You can't infer that there are "strong signs it may stall going forward" just by looking at that graph. In May you would have had to infer that there were "strong signs GOOG won't exist in a few months".

I don't know where GOOG is going and neither do you or anyone else that's involved. We can only have *qualified* opinions, more or less sophisticated than the Goldman Sachs' opinion or that of the guy down the street.

I'll choose more sophisticated than a screenshot of Google Finance.

Full disclosure: I'm long GOOG.

Startups.in/India · 2 years ago

Interesting! But I wonder if it'd help increase retention or speed up attrition!? :)
Unless I'm missing something, wouldn't it also facilitate those employees wanting to leave, to just sell them in this auction market and make some bucks rather than having to wait in hope for their options to be any worth 10 years down the lane?

Sachin Maheshwari · 2 years ago

If these are options then they are invalid as soon as you leave the company. So the question of cashing out the remaining options before leaving is moot.

I am surprised how this scheme works though. Does one need to stick around with the company till Jan 08 if I sell options on this market for Jan 08?

Startups.in/India · 2 years ago

Obviously this is to benefit those who already have vested shares but are under water. But still without this program there is a chance that the employees might stick a bit longer in hope that some day they might profit. But with this program employees no longer need to stick around.

Everton Blair · 2 years ago

Sachin - I doubt that's the case, as in that scenario you would only sell the option today if you think you'll be 'out of the money' in Jan 08, rather than being able to cash in early.

Jitendra · 2 years ago

Very interesting...but doesn't it take away the rationale that companies have been providing that stock options are for incentivizing employees. And I guess it finally takes the air out the argument that stock options cannot be expensed as they are too hard to value appropriately...

Overall this is a visionary move by Google and I am looking forward to how its gonna fare as a retention tool.

tomo · 2 years ago

most employee stock options vest over time. typically four years total for each grant with a 25% cliff at month 13 and then monthly thereafter.

the interesting issue which wasn't addressed is what happens if the employee quits, gets fired, dies, etc prior to vesting those options which he sold? where are the shares going to come from when the call comes due?

Boris Epstein · 2 years ago

I have 2 years of experience recruiting directly against Google and it has not been easy. But as tough as it's been to get people to join another company and turn down a Google offer (this happens more than you think), it's been absolutely impossible to get somebody to leave Google. It just doesn't happen (believe me, I've tried)

But it will get easier. I predict that by the end of 2007, the market will begin to see a flow of talent trickling out of Google. It will mostly be the newbie googlers who will realize that they joined a company for the hope of striking it rich - but they will realize that they missed the real boat by about 3 years and are meanwhile missing out on the opportunity to truly make an impact elsewhere.


Boris Epstein
BINC Founder
www.bincsearch.com

Testing... · 2 years ago

Just testing