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As part of this stock option backdating issue, our company has not been able to issue new options or shares, and also had to cancel our ESPP purchase this quarter. For some of us, this means we lost the chance to purchase stock at ~$15; our current stock price is ~$33. To compensate, the company decided yesterday to give employees cash/equity to make up the lost opportunity cost, which I think is generous since they were not obligated to do so.

So anyway, Shareholder Services sent out a company-wide message letting us know some details. One thing I tell new hires is to beware of the recipient list when you hit Reply All since the total-company list has a lot of names. As expected, our email inboxes are filling up with people's questions/comments, and other people telling them not to Reply All. The best email so far was a software engineer who commented on long-term vs. short-term tax implications. I think his comment is wrong (ESPP gains count as W2 wages so there's no holding period tax impact) and of course, he sent it out to 5,000+ people.