Stock amount increased, my options stayed the same?

[cschell]

What is the name of your state? New York

I previously worked for a very small company that when I was hired, I was given a certian amount of stock options fully vested on my date of hire. My co worker was hired a few months before me and was given options also. After a year of working there, the company went through some orginization changes and the amount of stock there was in the company went up a large amount (i guess like a split). None of us knew this happened. Then, I come to find out now, that when the stock increase happened, they called in a few key employees and increased their stock options by a HUGE amount because of the change. But, some of us were not given a similar increase, thus devaluing our stock amount by alot. The whole point of this is the company was just sold, and my co worker now will receive a SUBSTANTIAL amount more in the sale of the company.

My question is, is it legal to increase to total number of stock in a company but still keep the option holders at the same amount? Why would they have done it for some, but left others out of the it.

Thanks in advance
cas

 

[Beth3]

cas, you might want to repost your question in the Business and Financial Law forum on this board. Your question is outside the scope of employment law, even though I understand you're asking about an employment related issue.