Zynga To Employees: Give Back Stocks or You're Fired

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Wow, if this story is true, this has to be one of the crappiest things to ever pull on an employees.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus, along with his top executives, decided last year as they were preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) that they had given out too much stock to employees. But rather than accept that, the executives reportedly tried a different tactic: demand employees give back not-yet-vested stock or face termination.
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Id keep my stocks and take the termination along with unemployment until the IPO.
 
More proof that you should never trust a company executive. :mad:

"Remember all that good work you did in the early days that we said we appreciated when we gave you some stock? We need that back now because we have your ass hook, line and sinker but we need to recruit more people without diluting our own percentages." :mad:
 
Zynga is about as terrible and corrupt of a software company as one could be anyway, this does not surprise me.
 
Stock is part of their compensation so isn't this like taking back a paycheck? I can't see how this is legal. It sounds criminal.
 
Reminds me of the time 300 million people worked 250 years for benefits and a retirement fund and a few guys on Wall St. said "Nope sorry, just kidding we'll take that".
 
I agree, I don't see how this is legal. If you are giving me stock in lieu of salary (or to bolster my salary) I don't see how you can just take them back.

As for who plays them, obviously way to many people. Unless you happen to have a company who's IPO is going to raise $1B. Not sure many people do.
 
Man. That's shady as fuck.

I'm not new to stock disputes. But this is one of the ugliest things I've heard of.
 
Employees to Zynga response should be: Screw you and I'll be talking to an attorney.
 
Wow the ignorance in this thread is amazing.

Sure, this is a bull shit move but the employees have no choice, they cannot keep the stock. They were being asked to return non-vested stock.

Vesting is the process in which you gain control of stock or benefits you were awarded. It is not yours until it is vested. In all cases if you are terminated all non-vested stock is returned to the company.

Vesting is a common practice used as a way to encourage employees to stay with a company for certain periods of time. For example, you are awarded 400 units of stock for a year. But it vests at 25% per year. It will take 4 years for all the stock to become yours. If you are terminated or quit in 2 years you only have 200 units.
 
docmal said:
Wow the ignorance in this thread is amazing.

Sure, this is a bull shit move but the employees have no choice, they cannot keep the stock. They were being asked to return non-vested stock.

Vesting is the process in which you gain control of stock or benefits you were awarded. It is not yours until it is vested. In all cases if you are terminated all non-vested stock is returned to the company.

Vesting is a common practice used as a way to encourage employees to stay with a company for certain periods of time. For example, you are awarded 400 units of stock for a year. But it vests at 25% per year. It will take 4 years for all the stock to become yours. If you are terminated or quit in 2 years you only have 200 units.
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You beat me to it. However, this has to be illegal, since this is not much diference than demanding that employees return part of thier paychecks from the past years.

If it was me, I'd refuse to return the stock and document everything. Then if they fired me, I'd see them in court.
 
what he said...

This cannot be legal... breach of contract or something? How can a company demand their employees return compensation? Its not like the amount was a typo or company accidently gave too much.

People bitch and moan about unions... well this is precisely why unions are of value (or at least should be). In this case the employee has very little leverage, apparently the cases of the 2 employees that got lawyers weren't that good cause they still had to give some stock up.
 
Zynga is a rather short sighted company. How can they expect to attract top quality employees when they treat their current employees like crap?
 
Do you really need top quality employees to pump out stuff like farmville and mafia wars though? If any other facebook game gets popular, they just rip it off and put the Zynga leverage behind it.
 
docmal said:
Wow the ignorance in this thread is amazing.

Sure, this is a bull shit move but the employees have no choice, they cannot keep the stock. They were being asked to return non-vested stock.

Vesting is the process in which you gain control of stock or benefits you were awarded. It is not yours until it is vested. In all cases if you are terminated all non-vested stock is returned to the company.

Vesting is a common practice used as a way to encourage employees to stay with a company for certain periods of time. For example, you are awarded 400 units of stock for a year. But it vests at 25% per year. It will take 4 years for all the stock to become yours. If you are terminated or quit in 2 years you only have 200 units.
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Most likely it was in your hiring letter, agreement, etc, so forcing the return of it vs your termination could definitely lead to wrongful termination suits.
 
dandirk said:
what he said...

This cannot be legal... breach of contract or something? How can a company demand their employees return compensation? Its not like the amount was a typo or company accidently gave too much.

People bitch and moan about unions... well this is precisely why unions are of value (or at least should be). In this case the employee has very little leverage, apparently the cases of the 2 employees that got lawyers weren't that good cause they still had to give some stock up.
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^ this

when I see blue collar fox sheeple blame unions.. I can only laugh. Yes, unions are corrupt.. but management is MORE corrupt. Without solidarity... we are left being boot lickers for our feudal lords.. living in co housing, shopping in co stores, and slaving in co mines....meaning the co gets back 98% of every penny they "gave us" for our labor, which.. coincidentally...we are already very close to achieving.

we had it before unionization ( think w va coal mines, child labor abuse at turn of the century, etc ).. and the oligarch are determined to get back to that state... and to see ignorant fucks brain washed into helping the feudal lords achieve exactly what they want...by buying into the false non-conservative "conservative media" ( nothing conservative about mindless tyranny ) ( true conservatism - like Goldwater conservatism is a "Mind your own business " conservatism, Monroe Doctrine, take care of your own.. not this imperial "nation building", assassination of other leaders, corporations are MORE important than people, religious crusade like BS )

zynga is a scumbag co, a scumbag malware "gaming" co... hopefully their ipo wont even fly anyway... as FB seems to on the decline, predictably...
 
I guess you have to think if they signed any documents stating that they will need to return any stock that is un-used?
 
Very slimy move, although I'm confused by the former employee with unvested stock, I mean doesn't any unvested amount return to the company when you leave or are terminated?
 
DarkStar_WNY said:
Very slimy move, although I'm confused by the former employee with unvested stock, I mean doesn't any unvested amount return to the company when you leave or are terminated?
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yeah, but right now, they're saying "give the options up" or "you're fired"

not sure if the above is a valid wrongful termination suit, but
 
Why don't the executives just issue more shares of stock and dilute the value of the rest shares outstanding? Are they really that dumb?
 
Too shady for me. Removing their poker app from my iPad at next sync.

I won't support a company that acts like an asshat towards their employee's.
 
dopexile said:
Why don't the executives just issue more shares of stock and dilute the value of the rest shares outstanding? Are they really that dumb?
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because it'll dilute THEIR own shares... obviously something they don't want to do

and they can't just increase the # of shares by 30% and give it to themselves, because the rest of the shareholders will complain(prolly even if the executives hold like >50% of shares?)
 
paperwastage said:
because it'll dilute THEIR own shares... obviously something they don't want to do

and they can't just increase the # of shares by 30% and give it to themselves, because the rest of the shareholders will complain(prolly even if the executives hold like >50% of shares?)
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Bingo.
 
paperwastage said:
because it'll dilute THEIR own shares... obviously something they don't want to do

and they can't just increase the # of shares by 30% and give it to themselves, because the rest of the shareholders will complain(prolly even if the executives hold like >50% of shares?)
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But there's nothing preventing them from issuing the shares to "the other shareholders". They are free to issue additional shares to everyone except the certain individuals they want to snub.
 
It should be noted that EA games is half an hours drive from Zynga, Ubisoft is more like 10 blocks away and Twitter isnt far down town either. I would take the money and offer my talent to the other local companies. Zynga has a lot of potential due to facebook games and is considered one of the leaders in the facebook industry. If my theory is that Zynga is going to do well I might take my stock and become a millionaire, If I believe Zynga is a long term failure I leave the company and work for someone else if I have the talent. In both cases I win.

Alternatively I may have mediocre talent and giving the stock back might be great for job security.
 
XBarbarian said:
^ this

when I see blue collar fox sheeple blame unions.. I can only laugh. Yes, unions are corrupt.. but management is MORE corrupt. Without solidarity... we are left being boot lickers for our feudal lords.. living in co housing, shopping in co stores, and slaving in co mines....meaning the co gets back 98% of every penny they "gave us" for our labor, which.. coincidentally...we are already very close to achieving.

we had it before unionization ( think w va coal mines, child labor abuse at turn of the century, etc ).. and the oligarch are determined to get back to that state... and to see ignorant fucks brain washed into helping the feudal lords achieve exactly what they want...by buying into the false non-conservative "conservative media" ( nothing conservative about mindless tyranny ) ( true conservatism - like Goldwater conservatism is a "Mind your own business " conservatism, Monroe Doctrine, take care of your own.. not this imperial "nation building", assassination of other leaders, corporations are MORE important than people, religious crusade like BS )

zynga is a scumbag co, a scumbag malware "gaming" co... hopefully their ipo wont even fly anyway... as FB seems to on the decline, predictably...
Click to expand...

I don't even know where to begin with all the stupid slung across this post.

First let me say we are far from the state of endentured slavery you describe.

Second so you don't agree with values of "conservatism", that doesn't make it false, who are you to decide what is and isn't.

Third if the stock isn't vested it's not theirs to keep.

Fourth this is for sure the scheme of a real piece of dick cheese, that much is true.

Fifth a union wouldn't be able to do anything about this except perhaps strike, and if they are willing to demand back unvested stock what makes you think they wouldn't just lay everyone off and get a new set of employees ?
 
XBarbarian said:
^ this

when I see blue collar fox sheeple blame unions.. I can only laugh. Yes, unions are corrupt.. but management is MORE corrupt. Without solidarity... we are left being boot lickers for our feudal lords.. living in co housing, shopping in co stores, and slaving in co mines....meaning the co gets back 98% of every penny they "gave us" for our labor, which.. coincidentally...we are already very close to achieving.

we had it before unionization ( think w va coal mines, child labor abuse at turn of the century, etc ).. and the oligarch are determined to get back to that state... and to see ignorant fucks brain washed into helping the feudal lords achieve exactly what they want...by buying into the false non-conservative "conservative media" ( nothing conservative about mindless tyranny ) ( true conservatism - like Goldwater conservatism is a "Mind your own business " conservatism, Monroe Doctrine, take care of your own.. not this imperial "nation building", assassination of other leaders, corporations are MORE important than people, religious crusade like BS )

zynga is a scumbag co, a scumbag malware "gaming" co... hopefully their ipo wont even fly anyway... as FB seems to on the decline, predictably...
Click to expand...

Its equally ignorant to use every open opportunity to proclaim your specific political slant. Unions and Unionization is hardly the topic of this thread, and even if someone used this specific thread to blame unions; that doesn't mean its in good form promote your equally ridiculous opinion in a marginally self serving way. There is nothing stopping the Zynga employees from inciting terror and destruction internally except from some fruity laws that really only effect the result of their activities, this is more on-topic than a discussion about blue collar workers and unions (for or against) and yet it suggests unions all the same.

no i'm not the on-topic police
no this is not my opinion
no I don't think you are a bad person
no I am not generalizing you as a person
no I am not disrespecting you
no to any potentially negative misconceptions that could occur on either your or my side
 
Dark Shade said:
Zynga is about as terrible and corrupt of a software company as one could be anyway, this does not surprise me.
Click to expand...

It's Pinkus. He's one of the worlds biggest asshole douche bags every to grace the face of business.
 
XBarbarian said:
^ this

when I see blue collar fox sheeple blame unions.. I can only laugh. Yes, unions are corrupt.. but management is MORE corrupt. Without solidarity... we are left being boot lickers for our feudal lords.. living in co housing, shopping in co stores, and slaving in co mines....meaning the co gets back 98% of every penny they "gave us" for our labor, which.. coincidentally...we are already very close to achieving.

we had it before unionization ( think w va coal mines, child labor abuse at turn of the century, etc ).. and the oligarch are determined to get back to that state... and to see ignorant fucks brain washed into helping the feudal lords achieve exactly what they want...by buying into the false non-conservative "conservative media" ( nothing conservative about mindless tyranny ) ( true conservatism - like Goldwater conservatism is a "Mind your own business " conservatism, Monroe Doctrine, take care of your own.. not this imperial "nation building", assassination of other leaders, corporations are MORE important than people, religious crusade like BS )

zynga is a scumbag co, a scumbag malware "gaming" co... hopefully their ipo wont even fly anyway... as FB seems to on the decline, predictably...
Click to expand...

Hey XBarbarian, did you type this right out the DNC apparatchik manifesto? Jesus, talk about being a fucking tool. Feudal Lords? Really? I'm not a unionista, so what does that make me?
 
nutzo said:
You beat me to it. However, this has to be illegal, since this is not much diference than demanding that employees return part of thier paychecks from the past years.

If it was me, I'd refuse to return the stock and document everything. Then if they fired me, I'd see them in court.
Click to expand...


It is perfectly legal, albeit morally ambiguous.

First, in most states a company doesn't need a reason to terminate your employment. Obviously, there are implications if the termed employee can prove discrimination, but generally speaking a company can fire you whenever they want for no reason at all.

Second, Zynga is asking employees to retain employment and forfeit their non vested stock options OR be terminated, in which case the non-vested stock is forfieted by the definition of vesting. Either case results on non-vested stock being returned to Zynga.

In fact if they felt like it a company may say: To be employed with us you must pay us 90% of your salary, otherwise your fired. Legal, but doesn't make much sense considering you would not have any employees left.

Many people make the mistake that they have some rights with their employer, and it just is not true. Unless you have some sort of employment contract that dictates certain terms in your favor, you don't have any rights besides some basic anti discriminatory and safety regulations.
 
I think it is a great idea. We should be hiring all CEOs and other executives the same way. If the company performs poorly, strip them of their shares or face termination.
 
Only Cream and Bastards Rise...

I read that as the CEO saying "Sorry partners, I now think that you are much less valuable than the future people I plan to hire for whom I need these stocks, but instead of giving up my own stock and stock options to admit my mismanagement, I will ask you to give back the stock options I gave you as performance bonus and incentive for hire."
 
wow man this news would really f**k with Zyanga employee's minds. why dont the top management give up a small portion of their shares for it?!
 
docmal said:
Unless you have some sort of employment contract that dictates certain terms in your favor, you don't have any rights besides some basic anti discriminatory and safety regulations.
Click to expand...

Most companies that offer stock options require the employee to sign a contact outlining the specifics of the stock options (number of options, vesting period, etc)
Unless the contact says they can take back any unvested stock options whenever they want, this would be a violation of that contact, and illegal.
Firing someone because they would not agree to ripping up the contract would also be a violation of the contract, but harder to prove. The fact that they said they would fire anyone who didn't agree to give up thier options was really stupid.
 
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