How employee stock options work

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin S nack giant Mondelez announced last week it will acquire energy bar maker Clif Bar in a deal worth at least $2.9 billion. The sale of the Emeryville, California-based company, founded by entrepreneur and sports fanatic Gary Erickson back in 1992, marks a landmark moment that will make not only its majority owners rich, but also some of its employees. Forbes previously estimated that Erickson, aged 64, and his wife Kit Crawford, 63, who own at least 80% of the business they ran as co-CEOs for many years, would walk away with $1.53 billion (after taxes), bringing their collective net worth to $1.6 billion. The remaining 20% was set aside for Clif Bar’s employees when the company introduced an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in 2010 as a retirement benefit. That ownership stake should set employees up for a $580 million (pre-tax) payday. But which employees, and how much they get, appears to be a bone of … [Read more...] about Inside Clif Bar’s Rocky Road To Its Sale—And A Possible $580 Million Employee Payout

Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., recently became the largest shareholder of Twitter. Even for the world’s richest person, $43 billion is a steep price. Elon Musk’s proposed all-cash offer to buy Twitter Inc. represents about one-sixth of his $250.6 billion fortune. Yet the vast majority of that wealth is tied to his stake in Tesla Inc., the electric carmaker he co-founded that has surged in value over the past two years and lifted him to the top of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The purchase isn’t straightforward, but Musk has several financing paths. One option is to sell his Tesla shares outright. Another is borrowing against them to stage a leveraged buyout, possibly with outside partners. Musk, 50, currently has about $3 billion in cash or other somewhat liquid assets after spending $2.6 billion buying a 9.1% stake in Twitter in recent months, according to Bloomberg calculations. Musk + Twitter? | If he buys all of it, Twitter … [Read more...] about Elon Musk needs ‘massive loan’ or big Tesla stock sale to buy Twitter

In recent years, the 401(k) has become the most common way for full-time employees to save for retirement. With a 401(k), employees can take money from their salary before it is taxed, and they can choose to invest that money in a variety of stock and bond mutual funds. At the same time, many millions of Americans are investing directly in the stock market via a regular brokerage account. It’s often possible to invest in the same fund in both ways—through your 401(k) and through your brokerage account. However, you might find that the expense ratio associated with the investment is higher if it is held in your 401(k). In this article, we’ll explain why that might be the case and what you can do about it. Many people have both a self-directed brokerage account and a 401(k) plan provided by their employer. If that applies to you, you might notice that your expense ratios for the employer-sponsored plan are higher than your self-directed account. That’s because running … [Read more...] about Are Expense Ratios Higher for Fund Options in a 401(k)?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin TSMC's Morris Chang It was 2005, and Morris Chang, at age 74, had earned his retirement: the global economy had bounced back from a postmillennial downturn, and his Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, or TSMC, was back leading a wave of change in the electronics industry. Before the 1980s suppliers of chips for everything from computers to radios mostly spent big sums to design chips themselves and churn them out in their own factories. Chang in the middle of the decade came up with a niche: specialized factory services (also called a "foundry") for companies willing to outsource manufacturing to an unknown Taiwan company. The option erased an enormous financial barrier to entry for engineer entrepreneurs, led to a wave of innovations and lower costs for consumers, and created fortunes for young outfits such as Qualcomm and Broadcom . Older industry giants like Philips and AMD turned to TSMC, too. … [Read more...] about Ageless And Peerless In An Era Of Fabless

Every once in a while I think, "Wouldn't a corporate job be nice?" You know, the kind where your paycheck is the same every week and you get a bonus once a year, and stock options and an annual holiday party ? Then I remember that while I've loved my previous jobs, I love being a solopreneur even more. At this Thanksgiving season, here's why I'm thankful for my current situation. I'm the boss. Now granted, I have no direct reports, but I don't have anybody above me either . I don't have to worry about sucking up to a boss to get the good projects (clients are a different story). I get to make the decisions that I think are the best ones. If I want a day off, I can grant it to myself. It's pretty awesome. I have power over my own destiny. Now, this is actually true about people who work for others as well, but many people don't realize how much power they have. I get emails all the time from people who are desperate to get away from a horrible work situation but … [Read more...] about 5 Reasons Being a Solopreneur Is Great

Subscribers to the National Pension Scheme (NPS) are worried about their corpus eroding amid falling prices of stocks, bonds and government securities. Some savvy investors would like to sit out and come back to stock markets at lower levels, but NPS does not allow interim withdrawals. In this situation the only alternative, experts say, is to take a long-term view and focus on investing in line with your desired asset allocation. Falling returns Investors have experienced volatility across asset classes. In NPS , equity, corporate bonds and G-sec schemes have given 6.85 percent, 2.18 percent and 0.27 percent average returns respectively in the year ended May 27, 2022. Equity markets have done well since March 2020 on abundant liquidity. As liquidity is being withdrawn by central banks and inflation is sticky, stock markets have turned volatile. Same is the case with bonds. When central banks, including Reserve Bank of India, cut policy rates to stimulate the economy in … [Read more...] about Worried about falling NPS returns? Here is what you can do

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Here is a hack that will make you feel more confident in your job search: the interviewer and hiring managers are more nervous than you are. It’s hard to wrap your mind around this concept, as people are indoctrinated to think that job seekers should be the ones who are nervous and anxious going into an interview. They worry about being judged. Job hunters must contend with the shame of not moving onto the next level in the interview process. Even worse, they don’t receive feedback and get ghosted. The hiring process feels—to the job seeker—like the company, human resources, management and internal talent acquisition professionals hold all of the power. What Hiring Managers Obsessively Worry About A supervisor needs to hire. They want to make sure that the applicant possesses all of the requirements listed in the job description. The interviewer also wants to feel that they can click with the candidate and forge a … [Read more...] about Surprise: The Hiring Manager Is More Anxious Than The Job Seeker

There are all kinds of reasons that fast-growth companies want to go public. For Reddit , at the top of list is the chance to give back to its loyal employees. On December 15, the online message board company announced it had confidentially filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission for review, with intent to go public through an initial offering of stock. A blog post announcing the IPO gave little detail about the San Francisco-based business's plans, citing regulatory reasons. Known as the internet's town hall, Reddit is reliably one of the 10 most-visited websites in the United States, averaging 52 million daily active users in October 2021. The company, founded in 2005 by University of Virginia graduates Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman --the latter of whom now serves as chief executive--was acquired in its early days by the parent business of the Conde Nast media empire. It later regained autonomy and has raised multiple massive funding … [Read more...] about The Real Reason for Reddit’s IPO Plan Should Come as No Surprise

If you have investments in one or more IRAs, and you are starting a new job with an employer that offers a 401(k) plan, an important question may well arise – should you move your assets from your IRA into your new 401(k)? While the question is a logical one, it rarely arises because IRA “roll overs” generally happen in the opposite direction, with investors moving 401(k) assets into an IRA when they leave a job, or simply to take advantage of the investment freedom that an IRA offers. Nevertheless, there can be some good reasons to move your IRAs into your company’s 401(k). In this article, we’ll look at the pros and cons of this maneuver. Key Takeaways If you are starting a new job with an employer that offers a 401(k) plan, you might be wondering if you can move investments from your IRAs into your new plan. While unusual, this can have some advantages if you want to access your retirement funds early, or defer distributions until you retire. The disadvantage of doing … [Read more...] about Should I Put My IRAs Into My Company’s 401(K)?

There is no leadership crisis at RBL Bank and incoming chief R. Subramaniakumar will use his expertise to build RBL Bank 2.0, the bank management told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview on June 15. In a candid conversation with Moneycontrol, RBL Bank’s new Managing Director and CEO (MD & CEO) R. Subramaniakumar and outgoing interim CEO Rajeev Ahuja open up on challenges related to the bank’s leadership transition and fall in share prices. The RBL Bank management also gave guidance on the bank’s asset quality, its microfinance and card portfolio, and business outlook for FY23. Edited excerpts: Q- The announcement naming you as the next CEO came Saturday. Were you tensed? Close Kumar - I caught up with my six and a half hours of sleep. Normally I sleep for up to seven hours a night. I could catch up on my sleep because both Rajeev and I and the team are very clear on the path forward. So, there was no need for me to get under much pressure. Q- Mr. … [Read more...] about Exclusive Interview| No leadership crisis at RBL Bank, RBI to take final call on board nominee, says management