
Ask HN: Upon startup acquisition, can exercised equity be re-vested? - deanmoriarty
Hi<p>For people who have gone through a successful startup acquisition, has it ever happened that the acquirer company made you re-vest the equity that you already vested and exercised? And, if they did that, how did it work with employees who exercised their equity and then left the startup before the acquisition happened, bringing the equity with them? Were they subject to a new vesting schedule even if they were outside the company? Because that doesn&#x27;t make a lot of sense.<p>Intuitively I would say that all the vested and exercised equity should be paid immediately shortly after the acquisition (regardless of whether one is inside or outside the company), and the unvested portion might get a new vesting schedule?<p>For this example I am assuming that the startup is selling at a price significantly above the last valuation, so all preferred shares convert to common and the terms were clean: 1X liquidation preferences, non-participating, and there was never emission of debt.<p>To be more specific, I happen to be an ex very early startup employee who left with a significant amount of equity. I was able to offload some of my equity to investors who contacted me privately, but I held on to the majority, and it looks like the startup might soon get acquired, and from the rumors I heard the rest of my pot might be worth a significant amount (low-mid 7 figures).<p>I will of course look for legal advice, but some tips one can get from experienced HN folks are invaluable as well.<p>Thanks
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superqd
If you already own x% of the company it sounds like they are wanting to make
installments on the purchase of the company via 're-vesting'. I.e., rather
than pay 100% to own your shares, they want to own 100% of your shares, then
pay you a portion of X over time. I assume this means they will be paying
interest on the loan you are giving them.

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deanmoriarty
To be clear, I'm not assuming the acquiring company will do any of this. I
just want to gather collective wisdom as to what are the ways through which
acquirers can impose additional handcuffs to existing and former employees, in
order to delay their ability to liquidate their vested shares.

