Is it usual to announce these numbers for all employees with acquisitions like this?
Which in turn got them from a company called PrivCo: http://www.privco.com/
Who knows how accurate they are.
Interesting to keep in mind for anyone working for a startup as a metric.
You work and have a chance, if the idea hits (to the tune of 1 billion) of making low to mid 6 figures.
$371k is certainly nice but considering the amount of startups that not only don't succeed but don't succeed to the extent that Tumblr did ...
It isn't necessarily a great deal either though. Somebody making market salary at a startup in one of the most expensive cities in the world may very well be saving less than somebody grossing a considerable amount less in a less expensive area, and after taxes that $371,000 bonus isn't a whole lot more than the base salary for a first year associate attorney at a major law firm in New York.
So while I wouldn't call the outcome here disappointing for anybody involved, I think it does highlight the generally poor economics of equity for startup employees: even when your company hits a grand slam, the windfall is rarely a short cut to the type of wealth that is frequently achieved by starting a successful small business or going into a lucrative profession.
For one thing, software engineering is a lucrative profession. It pays more than most other white collar jobs in New York, except some law, some finance, and some consultants. But it is certainly better than the large swaths of people in marketing, HR, PR, accounting, etc.
The choice of city vs not city is completely independent of the startup vs non-startup thing.
If you are intent solely on maximizing cash in your pocket, then I doubt startups are the best path. If you want that, just go work on wall street. I grew up around that, and I've known for a long time that no matter how much money there is in it, it's not a great life.
Whether you trust it or not is up to you.
So they get a one-time mid-level banking bonus, and now they work for a completely different company and almost certainly in positions lower than what they used to have.
VCs would quit given year-end bonuses like that.