Your tender offer lets you sell – just not as much as you think

You just got the notice. Your company is running a tender offer — a program that lets employees sell some of their shares for cash while the company is still private — and there's a closing date. Now you're stuck on one question. How much should you sell? The instinct most people feel is to treat this as a simple yes-or-no bet on whether the company still has room to run. In reality, it’s much more nuanced than that.

What Happens to Your Stock Options in an Acquisition?

If your company is in M&A discussions, your equity deserves more attention than your org chart. By the time a deal is announced, the terms of your payout are largely set — and the window for tax planning has mostly closed. But that doesn't mean there's nothing left to do. Understanding exactly how your options and RSUs are treated in a transaction, and verifying that your payout is actually calculated correctly, can be the difference between capturing what you've earned and leaving significant money on the table.