[coffeemug]

There are a number of reasons this could have happened:

1. You left before any of your stock vested. Assuming a standard four year vesting schedule and a one year cliff, this makes complete sense. (Although you are saying that you paid for your options, so this likely isn't the case here).

2. The company got shut down, its assets liquidated, and the founders and a select group of employees went to work for Google. This is perfectly sensible from a legal/operational standpoint, but is really unethical if the founders didn't take care of existing stock holders.

3. The founders had liquidation preferences that employees didn't have. This seems really unethical to me, but it's also something you could have seen when joining the company by doing the legal diligence.

Bottom line here is do the diligence, understand the mechanics so there is no confusion as to what they are later, and, most importantly, make sure company founders are decent people who'll pick the high road if/when presented with a choice. I don't think I could live with myself if I had to look in my fancy, gold-plated mirror every morning knowing that I screwed people that trusted me to lead them out of what's rightfully theirs. Make sure you get a good vibe from the people you work for - nothing can substitute chemistry, character judgement, and basic human decency.

[danudey]

I worked for a company that got three offers for acquisition, all of which were talent grabs:

- One really high offer from a social network. Talks fell through.

- One reasonable offer from a relatively unknown company (which they took, good culture fit).

- One completely terrible offer from a major tech company, with incredibly high salaries afterwards.

The first one would have been the best for investors, and good for the employees, except the culture fit wasn't quite there. The second was a great culture fit, but wasn't that great for the investors (especially considering it was a cash-and-stock deal and the stock tanked). The third would have been a fantastic deal for the employees and a slap in the face to investors (which is why they didn't take it).

It's funny how easy it is to take the asshole route when it comes down to it.

[Retric]

'Paid for my options before leaving the company.' means #1 is irrelevant.

Chances are there was some issue with preferred vs common stock.

[billmcneale]

No, it's not uncommon for startups to let you buy the stock before it even vests. The company will buy it back if you leave before you vest (although you usually don't even bother since they are worth pennies).

If the OP left after staying less than a year, they most likely didn't vest anything.

[fourk]

For reference, I had vested the shares that I purchased.

[jpdoctor]

> but is really unethical if the founders didn't take care of existing stock holders.

Happens all the time. Usually it means that the acquiring company issued a bonus to those employees it was bringing across. If you're not one of them, have a nice day.