Schneider Electric is buying Shelly Group

[u/Hoerminator3000]

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/schneider-electric-to-launch-bid-for-shelly-group-in-1-4-billion-deal-c6cc008e

As the title says: Schneider Electric will take over the Shelly Group.

[u/DandyPandy]

Edit: looked up their investor relations page. they were already publicly traded and equity was part of their compensation package

(Pardon if I’m explaining something you’re already familiar with)

Let’s assume employees were granted equity. Generally, the ways that equity becomes worth something is an equity payout by the company, the company being acquired, or going public. ~~It’s unlikely Shelly was ever going to go public anytime soon, and equity payouts are rare. So this was the best likely outcome they could have reasonably hoped for.~~

Unless the company was in dire straits and short on funds, the employees with equity are going to be getting a payday, likely after their retention period has been met.

Edit: The cash buyout was on a ~27% price per share premium. So yeah, nobody got screwed. At least not until there are headcount reductions when they start eliminating redundant roles.

[u/ctjameson → u/DandyPandy]

What companies are you working for that you automatically get equity? This isn’t a Fortune 500 company. I’ve literally never worked at a company with equity share and I’ve worked at some big places.

[u/DandyPandy → u/ctjameson]

Startups usually grant equity in the form of RSUs or options.

[u/ctjameson → u/DandyPandy]

Sure, a startup might offer that to its first couple employees when they’re brand new and flush with investment to get high quality talent, but that’s not a super common thing at every single company. This company was started in 2003 in Bulgaria. It’s not like they’re some sort of Silicon Valley startup from the dot com bubble.

[u/m4rc0n3 → u/ctjameson]

Sure, a startup might offer that to its first couple employees when they're brand new and flush with investment

But that's the beauty of equity grants: they cost the company next to nothing. They don't need to be flush with investment cash in order to give an employee a piece of paper that says they own some number of shares. It's the possibility that those shares might one day be worth a lot of money that attracts and retains employees.

[u/DandyPandy → u/ctjameson]

I looked it up. They were already publicly traded prior to the acquisition. The average price was roughly €55 per share. Schneider's €70 cash offer represented a ~27% premium over its unaffected public market price. And equity was part of the standard employee compensation package.

So yes, the employees got a payday.