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heymijo

What of the employees?

Five days ago the Financial Times reported on Airbnb lowering its internal valuation from $31 billion to $26 billion.

They also mentioned the delay of any IPO and said this:

>The push to go public was motivated, in part, by expiring stock options held by staff.

What happens to the employees in this situation?

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They have to take out loans and exercise their options before they expire.

> exercise their options before they expire

Usually employee options don't expire until some amount of time after you leave the company

Not true. Most options expire 10 years from grant date regardless of your employment status. This means fully vested option holders have 6 years from grant to exercise.

Yep, and according to things I've previously read, AirBnb switched to RSUs in 2014 and those all have a 7 year expiration date.

I'm only familiar with RSUs in a public company, how can an RSU expire after vest? I thought once it lapses you simply own a share.

Probably some sort of double trigger RSU, where the trigger event is likely an IPO or acquisition.

Taxes. If company is not public, and the RSU converts, employees are hit with 30-50% income tax for the stock value you cannot easily sell.

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