Ask HN: Advice after a stock option mess at a unicorn?
* Did an inter-company transfer to the US before those 4 years were up, and these >200k EMI options kept "vesting" to completion while I was in the US on Carta
* During that same time period, I was also being issued new ISO options grants (meaning that the responsible people in the company could see I was in the US, could not be issued EMI, had to be issued ISO, but that I was also "vesting" an EMI grant)
* I asked about exercising the >200k options that I thought were fully vested, was told that I should have been made to exercise what had vested and had the remainder reissued as ISO when I transferred to the US (there was no communication about this at the time and no reference to it on my transfer-related contracts)
* One idea that has been floated to me is reissuing the post-transfer options (slightly more than half of the >200k) at the current strike price, which is significantly higher and will require a six-figure sum to exercise (vs a few hundred dollars)
* Company is now a unicorn, private and with no immediate plans that anyone knows of to sell or IPO
* I am now a US LPR, still employed by the same company
Has anyone been in a similar situation before? Known someone who has been in a similar situation? Has knowledge of the law(s) surrounding situations like this? Any advice on how to approach this situation is welcome.
[1]: https://www.gov.uk/tax-employee-share-schemes/enterprise-management-incentives-emis