this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
275 points (99.3% liked)
News
37639 readers
1653 users here now
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.
Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.
7. No duplicate posts.
If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.
All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
How does this work, and how is it legal?
The article doesn't say so but it might be part of bankruptcy proceedings or something similar. The company is sold off to pay debts but there isn't enough money to pay everyone, debts are paid off in a legally determined order, and stock or option holders aren't near the front of the line. I know folks who worked for First Republic and lost all their stock and options (and accrued vacation time, which is also apparently a debt) like that.
That's right, the bond holders get paid first because those are loans. The preferred shares get paid next because those are basically higher yielding bond equivalents.
That's the only way this makes sense.
*There are usually laws that the first debt in line is unpaid wages. I'm surprised that vacation time wouldn't be included in that. Employees' stock and options though are the same as any other stock: worthless.
In usa laws only protect rich people
Maybe?
Can you just sell right now in the least? Like if you were quick enough, would it be possible? I guess not.
Who would buy it? The minute they announced this deal the value effectively went to 0.
What the fuck? How is that even legal? Aren't stocks supposed to be ownership stakes in the company? How can they just take that away?
Because fuck you plebe!
I want off this earth guys.
Don't worry, considering the path we're headed down none of us will be here for much longer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In a liquidation sale, common stock holders only get paid if there is money left over after everyone else gets their cut. Creditors, bondholders and preferred stock holders are ahead of them in line.
It's also worth pointing out that the company is not publicly traded, it's privately owned, so in effect the shares were always worthless. It's not clear to me if they were actually ownership shares or just options against the possibility of the company going public at some point in the future.
Creditors, bondholders and preferred stock holders are ahead of them in line.
I can't believe capitalism still keeps surprising me with how fucked up it is.
It's not clear to me if they were actually ownership shares or just options against the possibility of the company going public at some point in the future.
See above.
Often common stock implies the existence of preferred stock, i.e. the investors got paid out in low sale and everyone else had no money available. The increasingly dominant private equity corp biz probably got a great deal. The class divide widens as usual
I tried researching this a bit, and from what I understand, the company basically has no money, which in turn makes the stock worthless. So since the stock is effectively $0.00 per share, they can just "cancel" the stock completely.
This could be oversimplified or dead wrong, but I don't understand any other way this could work legally.
I think that's how it's been justified but the company just sold so it's not worthless anymore right? Can't have it both ways.
That's exactly correct. The only caveat is if it's paying off debt but it sounds like a good old fashioned screwing.
song as old as time
Tale as old as rhyme
Capitalism and the disease
Reading into this it's likely a distressed asset sale, a bankruptcy in all but name. They're toast and they know they're toast, but instead of bankruptcy they sell all the assets. They then use the money to pay off in order: wages, debts, preferred shares, common shares. Sounds like this is preferred over bankrupty, which when you get the courts involved is expensive and time consuming (so fewer debt holders get their money).
Mama mia!
So then they can try a class action, accuse ownership of some kind of impropriety. Might as well go for it, at least the lawyers will make some cash.
This place has gross drinks. No idea how they stay in business.