This removed because of "disclosed trade secrets or other confidential, internal company information", so I will try to remove the part I believe is in violation while still getting the main point across. Everything else is public information, numbers have been removed, and the rest are facts.
As you may know from the news, Alfresco is being acquired by Thomas H. Lee private equity firm. All employees thought this was great new as we were given a pile of stock options over the years and told by many they are very valuable.
However, in Doug's last all hands meeting today (he made it very clear by announcing it 5 times in 15 minutes that he is done with Alfresco as soon as the buyout is complete) he addressed some questions accusing him of selfishly maneuvering his position to get the most out the buyout for himself.
He squashed those accusations by very clearly stating that he and the other executives had gotten all the way to the finish line with another investment firm only to have it fall out at the very end. After he and his executives were disappointed about the sell price and how much they would make, he confessed that he banded together with other executives to threaten that they would leave the company if they were not given a large percent of the sell price he nick named a "carve out". He further elaborated that selling the company would not be possible without him and the executives so the board of directors agreed to pay them. This was his reasoning for it not being his fault.
He decided to basically hold the company hostage and demand ransom in the form of *(a significant portion)* of the total sell price of the company. This is of course after he failed the ONLY JOB he was hired to do which was take the company public for an IPO offering. He then blamed this failure on the hiring and quick departure of a single sales director that happened FOUR YEARS AGO.
Several employees, including myself, had been given stock and stock options in lieu of raises for many years. I had a director above me try to convince me that my 500 shares were worth almost $20,000 dollars.
Needless to say, there is a mass exodus of employees as it is looking like everyone will make *(basically nothing)* on each of their stocks. I have heard reports that several employees have gotten their stock payouts and it does not even cover one month's rent or mortgage. Several years of having stock and it equates to less than rent/mortgage for one month.
Doug tried to re-assure everyone that this is how Silicon Valley works, a "Carve-Out" is a justified business practice, and that this was not his fault as it was the board that approved everything.
No Doug, no. You decided to act upon a devious idea to use your position and leverage to take away all the employees potential earnings from stock. You then decided to redistribute that to the San Mateo Executives. That is why you are getting so much backlash. Just because something isn't explicitly illegal does not mean its right. You took away what would have been significant money to us regular humble people, just because your significantly larger payout at the time was not up to your luxurious standards. You turned what would have been year-changing money of 400+ hardworking people, to an amount that won't impact most of us for more than a month, just so you and your executive team could add to their millions.
He showed his true colors today since he is expected to be out by the end of this week.
