2,880,000 shares would be worth $87 million today. However, since 2003 (after the last stock split) MSFT stock has had dividends. In total those dividends have come to $6.75 per share, adding an additional $19.44 million for a grand total of $106.44 million.
You'd be worth a billion or two yeah (I'm not sure if the google and yahoo finance charts are split-adjusted, I'll assume they are in which case, since MSFT's peak corresponded to an AAPL high tide ($25 in December 1999, up from $4 in January 1998 and would fall to $7.5 by December 2000) and the ratio was ~2:1 (both stocks have split 2:1 since so that does not need to be taken in account) he'd own 5.76 million AAPL shares worth... $2.6bn (at the current $459 price))
People who accept counters are usually gone in a year anyway - they'd already decided to go, management has written them off in their minds, something like that.
Looking for the stat, but it's at least an 80% chance they'll be gone in 2 years; either of their own accord or the company's. So if your boss ever pulls one of these maneuvers either get on their boss's good side or start looking for work yourself because there's about to be a shuffle.
80% chance of leaving within 2 years? How far is this from the average stay in any given job in IT these days? Except for my first job that I stayed for 3.5 years (mostly out of necessity at the time), all my others have been less than 2 years, be it by my own will, the company's will or both.
Good point, I was thinking about that not long after I posted it. I think it had more to do with management shuffles than employee shuffles. Most stats I can find state it as 80-90% leaving in 6 months to 1 year which sounds right, often resuming their job hunt 90 days after receiving the counter.
Counters rarely make sense. There's probably exceptions, but I've never seen any.
Reminds me a little about when someone wants to break up with their partner and the partner tries to get them to stay. Usually by the time someone wants to leave things are just broken and to late to fix.
Salary increases are frequently based on your existing base, so doubling salary in 1983 probably translates into an increased income stream since then, which would amount to a fair take (28 years of 100k income is $2.8 million).
Presumably there have been other stock options since.
If some of that income was saved and invested, there'd be some return on that as well. The Dow and NASDAQ are up about 1100% in this time (MSFT is up 29,900%). Interestingly, S&P 500 is up only 817% (greater diversification doesn't mean better returns).
As with most financial comparisons, there are a number of things to consider. On balance, selling his soul to MSFT in 1983 would probably have been the better move.
You may have lost million dollars, but you may not have earned these experiences. After all we all are going to die. So, in the end only the experiences will be counted.
That also depends on what you do with the money from the raise. I don't know what that was but you could've invested it and made significant returns as well.
I didn't heed this advice, and took a counter offer (doubling my salary at the time). This seemed like a good deal.
What did I turn down? 10,000 shares of Microsoft stock. In 1983.
Oops...