[dmix]

> If they're selling, I don't think it necessarily can be construed as good or bad without proper context.

This is assuming the employees and stock holders are rational and can maintain long-term risky assets. Plenty of people will be looking to cash out as they've held stock for a long period and want to buy a nice house or car or something.

I'm sure the wealthier percentage will take a longer term look at it. But I wouldn't generalize the average equity owning employee as you would a typical public market.

[mtremsal]

Selling shares during a tender offer is a perfectly rational move for employees that are cash-poor and faced with the tax implications of exercising their options. Also obviously for anyone looking to simply de-risk.

[dmix]

Fair enough, it’s all about how much time and money you have. Rational was a poor choice of words.

[mcmoose75]

I was at a company previously that had a liquidity event, and many of my colleagues (not me unfortunately) had very meaningful stock awards.

A lot of people discussed what they should do openly, and recognized the potential for the stock to go up later on- many defaulted to selling half of their holdings as soon as they could to put some cash in their pocket, and holding on to half for potential gains. Not super sophisticated, but it seemed like it made good sense to me.