

Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ - gatsby
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/skype-silver-lake-evil/

======
brudgers
> _"Silicon Valley companies attract employees by giving them options which
> vest over time."_

Just another of example of how this story is being spun in the tech media.
Skype is not a Silicon Valley company in any meaningful sense. Most of their
development team is in Estonia and their headquarters is in Luxemburg.

[<http://jobs.skype.com/lifeatskype.html>]

~~~
zaidf
Neither is San Francisco or Mountain View _technically_ Silicon Valley. I
always thought that SV is used more as a metaphor for the tech startup scene
than the specific location.

~~~
true_religion
Mountain View is directly adjacent to Silicon Valley. Like Silicon Valley it
is a suburb of San Francisco.

I'm not sure how you can say developing in a county adjacent to silicon valley
is the same thing as developing in a _country_ more than 3000 miles away.

If Silicon Valley is a metaphor then the term is meaningless. New York is
Silicon Valley. So is Chicago. So is Vancover, and London.

If it isn't---because of the unique legal structure, cultural consciousness,
and developer concentration in and around Silicon Valley---then its unfair to
say that a Luxumburg company operating under EU rules is a silicon valley
company.

~~~
yid
That makes no sense. Mountain View is a real place. Silicon Valley is a
nickname for the region, so saying "MV is directly adjacent to SV" makes no
sense to me.

~~~
true_religion
I thought Silicon Valley was a nickname for Sunnyvale, CA.

~~~
yid
Nope. It refers to the region roughly south of South SF and north of San Jose.

------
Timothee
Discussed yesterday here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2692985>.
Granted the first post was for the same article on Reuters, while this one is
on Wired.

What's odd though is that:

1\. The repost on Wired makes no mention that it's not a new article by the
author. I find it typical to see "This was previously seen in Blabla".

2\. The title went from "Upgrading" to "Downgrading", which made me think it
was in response to the first post.

------
daimyoyo
This brings to mind an interesting question. What is the cost to have a lawyer
go over and negotiate an employment contract? Are there any firms offering
that service?

------
slowcpu
"If, in connection with the termination of a Participant’s Employment, the
Ordinary Shares issued to such Participant pursuant to the exercise of the
Option or issuable to such Participant pursuant to any portion of the Option
that is then vested are to be repurchased, the Participant shall be required
to exercise his or her vested Option and any Ordinary Shares issued in
connection with such exercise shall be subject to the repurchase and other
provisions in the Management Partnership agreement."

This is actually pretty clear even to me ( and I merely have an interest in
law as opposed to having legal training ) and should be manifestly obvious to
a real lawyer. He should have had a lawyer read his employment contract and
then should have discussed it again before he decided to leave Skype.

~~~
jbjohns
You think a person should have to consult a _lawyer_ before changing jobs?
That's insane. It's bad enough with health care concerns.

------
neologik
More like downgraded to "Microsoft".

~~~
Shamiq
RTFA first?

------
alexwestholm
"Consequently, this means that you will receive no value in respect of any of
the shares underlying your Options."

I don't really see how that's ambiguous... I mean, I think Skype and their
investors have behaved like total assholes, but the guy did sign a contract
which explicitly told him what would happen.

~~~
gojomo
That quote is from a letter from Skype's lawyer sent after the fact — that is
_not_ the contract language Lee agreed to.

