For example, in a company where the CEO gets a hiring grant of 400,000 shares, the option grants might look like this. Tables 1 and 2 show current grant practices among high-tech firms that offer annual grants and hire grants, respectively. The data, which comes from published surveys, is expressed in terms of percentages of the company. For illustration, the grants are also expressed in terms of number of options in a company with 20 million shares outstanding. Annual stock option grant practices in the high-technology industry.
Stock option hire grants in the high-technology industry.
6,810 - 17,820 Senior tech. Note that it is rare for a stock options grant to someone other than a CEO to exceed 1 percent. To take an extreme example, if 100 employees were granted an average of 1 percent of the company each, there would be nothing left for anyone else. At an IPO, for example, high-profile senior executives are usually brought in to provide additional credibility and management insight. Employees who have been there since the beginning are sometimes surprised to see large numbers of options being given out near the IPO, but they should expect it.