Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 29, 2023

On Valentine’s Day 2000, I went to work for a dot com. I was given stock options at $24 for a company that had not gone public yet. The company went public 3rd March 2000. The stock peaked at $69 that day. By 10th March 2000, the day NASDAQ peaked during the dot com bubble, it was at $109. It reached its high a few days later at $116. One year later, it was below $6.

Looks like Zipper in disguise!!

I have beat a hasty exit from every company that has tried this with me.

Not one of them ever later actually went public.

Why doesn’t Trent just quit and get a REAL job??

I wonder how many people went broke when given shares in Trumpty-Dumpty’s companies.

Especially the ones that eventually went bankrupt!!

Mikes a rino? lol

Before stock options, companies would promise profit sharing. There were usually no profits, and no sharing

I’ve been doing the 401k for a while. Apparently, I have some stock. For all that, I still have to pay the mortgage with real money.

My brother cashed out his stock options a few days after the peak in 2000. Instant millionaire, early retirement. Two years later he went back to work — still rich, but bored out of his mind. Happily working (and even richer) today. But then, the company he’d been at is still around today, as well. Not all dot coms were scams.

Stock options can make a delicious soup.

So they’ve had the IPO since yesterday? Otherwise, how would he have stock to share? Obviously, they aren’t deep in debt from paying salaries.

Maybe they need to devise a product, not a feature.