Ownership and Compensation Conflated: The Case of Bill Gates and Paul Allen at Microsoft

Paul Allen claims in his memoir that Bill Gates tried on more than one occasion to reduce Allen’s relative ownership interest in Microsoft. Of course, the veracity of Allen’s explanation can be questioned even if the ownership changes in percentage terms are a matter of public record. Whereas The Wall Street Journal focused on Allen's credibility in making his claim, I see a case study on the difference between ownership and compensation for labor.

The full essay is at "Ownership and Compensation."

Facebook Holds Employees to Declining Stock

With Facebook’s stock trading at $17.73 a share just after Labor Day 2012, down more than half from the IPO issue-price of $38, further downward pressure was anticipated due to the upcoming expirations of the lock-up. Employees would be able to cash in approximately 220 million shares at the end of October, 780 million shares in mid-November, and still more in December and then in the following May 2013. Experts were not putting much stock in Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to hold onto his options for at least a year. Rather than trying to assess the impact of the downward pressure on where the price might go, a business ethicist would be apt to notice a subtle point of fairness by class pertaining to when the options can be sold.

                                                                                     
The full essay is at Taking the Face Off Facebook, available at Amazon.

Weening Businesses Off Debt: A Difficult Recovery?

We might view the recovery from the financial crisis of 2008 as a systemic correction in which managers were weened off their reliance (i.e., addition) on debt. Of course, the key lies in holding to the correction rather than falling off the wagon. Perhaps there should be an AA for debt-ridden businesses.

The full essay is at "Weening Businesses Off Debt."