

Ask HN:  What happens to unvested equity in an acquisition? - dear

If, for example, shares are vested over 4 years, but in the third year an acquisition occurs.  What would happen to those unvested shares?
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tptacek
Either the unvested shares won't vest immediately and things will go as you
expected them to before acquisition, or they will all vest immediately, or
they will vest immediately but be subject to a buyback. I've had all three in
contracts.

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alanmhughes
If you're asking from the perspective of evaluating an options package being
offered to you or if you're planning to offer options to employees, I'd say
it's pretty usual to expect all options to vest in the event of an
exit/acquisition.

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spolsky
It depends on what the options contract says, so read it and you'll see.
Sometimes there is a provision for partial acceleration of vesting in the
event of an acquisition.

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dear
Thanks all! So basically it should be in the contract how it should be handled
in case of an acquisition.

