Facebook cancels employee stock sale
So much for Silicon Valley's latest get-rich-quick scheme. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cancelled a plan to let employees cash out their shares early.
In August, before the markets started to melt down and with Facebook worth $15 billion on paper, Zuckerberg unveiled a plan to let employees sell a small amount of their shares — no more than $900,000 or 10 percent of their stock holdings, whichever was less. The program, all but unheard of among Valley startups, was meant to appease employees who were agitating for some chance to make money from their shares. It was a revolutionary new way to reward employees, without having to go through an IPO or a sale.
The revolution is over, Zuckerberg told his company today. "I'm writing this note to let you know some bad news," he wrote in an email to all employees at the 800-person social-network startup this afternoon. "Despite a lot of work, we have not been able to finalize a plan for the employee stock sale we announced in August."
Microsoft had invested $240 million in the company for a 1.6 percent stake in the company that valued all of Facebook at $15 billion, but that deal came with extras: Microsoft bought preferred shares, which get paid off first if the company's bought, and it also got an advertising deal with Facebook at the same time.
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