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gatsby

Yes, Square's private per share prices:

Series A: $0.21627

Series B: <$1

Series C: $5.79817

Series D: $11.014

Series E: $15.46345

IPO @ $9 is not great for lots of folks, but mostly late-stage employees (assuming D & E investors have a liquidation preference - though I don't know for sure).

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Series E investors got a ratchet guaranteeing $18.56 per share: http://techcrunch.com/2015/11/10/squares-s-1-of-ratchets-and...

what about the common? i think that was the gist of the comment...do the ESOPs pay out in preferred?

edit: below comment mentions using comp rsus

Strike prices on common are almost always far far below what investors are paying for preferred shares.

I thought they were priced at the last round price (which is usually a discount if you interpolate the prce between rounds)

Nah, there's a big discount because preferred shares have downside protection (as well as a few other valuable things general) so common stock is valued lower. Generally a 70% discount or so.

the discount varies by investment round. common shares for early stage companies come with a huge discount. or perhaps it is clearer to say that preferred shares come with a huge premium primarily because the liquidation preference (LP) is so valuable at that stage). preferred shares in later rounds have a much lower premium, because investors don't value the LP as much.

I've had this happen, and it's wrong. The price must be adjusted based on the terms. Common stock has basically no terms, so strike price should be much, much lower than what investors are paying for preferred.

This is for preferred stock though, not for common stock. Employee options would be priced to common stock.

Just went through an IPO and we had a stock split to bring the price down to a number around $14. Square could also be doing a split so that $9 doesn't mean D & E are getting screwed.

a stock split doesn't account for the lower total evaluation.

That's not how stock splits work. You can't somehow subvert a falling valuation just by creating more shares.

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