

A VC (Fred Wilson) on Zynga's "Give our stock back or you'll be fired" - davidjohnstone
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/11/long-roadmaps.html#comment-361839182

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pedalpete
Can you explain why you gave the article that title? I don't see Fred
mentioning the stock issue at all in the article, and I don't see why the
founder having a 'long roadmap' means that somebody who was given an amount of
stock should have to give it back.

If the road map was so large, the stock plan should have reflected that, or
maybe the company hasn't reached the value metrics at the intersection of road
map and stock plan.

Either way, is that the fault of the employee? Why do the employees have to
give back their stock? What about Pinkus? Is he putting his stock back into
the pool also?

I haven't been actively following this story. So I'm sorry if I'm still a bit
ignorant about it, but my main point is that I'm not sure this article is
directly referencing the stock issue.

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davidjohnstone
The original story is at: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3220819>

The link is meant to go to a comment where somebody asks about the Zynga
situation, and Fred Wilson replies with:

"i think it is an example of what the media does to companies that are in the
quiet period. when mark and zynga can tell their side of the story, i think
people will realize that zynga is a meritocracy where performance matters more
than anything else "

And:

"please don't make the mistake of hearing only one side of the story when the
other side can't talk because they are in a quiet period. when the truth can
and will come out, i think you will realize what zynga does is not only fair
and equitable, it is doing it in the interest of fairness for everyone. but
you can do one thing. go look at Zynga's S1 and look at how much stock
employees and former employees own versus how much stock Mark owns. mark is
generous to a fault in my opinion."

Basically, only one side of the story has surfaced so far, and those in the
know on the other side are legally bound to keep quiet for the moment.

