Spat over payout after Snap deal

When Fit Analytics was sold to Snap, it was also about payouts as part of employee participation programs. Now a former employee is complaining.

The year actually started well for the start-up Fit Analytics: in March, it was acquired by the US company Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, for 124 million dollars. At Fit Analytics, the takeover also included paying employees a stake in the start-up, known as the Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP). This option is primarily used by young start-ups that are not yet able to pay their team a high salary. The ESOP gives them a share in the future profits or exit of a start-up.

As reported by Gründerszene, shortly before the official negotiations to buy the start-up, the leading employees were offered to hand over their ESOPs at a low price. "Instead of a few thousand euros, I would have been entitled to more than twenty times the amount," one of the employees told Gründerszene. According to the report, the first offer for the buyback came in mid-December 2020, and Snap said it also held initial talks about the purchase in December. Fit Analytics says that a takeover was not on the cards at the time of the offer.

The employee who spoke to Gründerszene was visibly disappointed with the way things were handled. He was not the only one to receive an offer. Three other managers also received the email, one of whom said of his option: "The bottom line was that it was less than ten percent of the proceeds that were transferred to me for my share options after the takeover by Snap. "For companies that do not pay out their employees correctly on exit or mislead them about the value of the options, there may also be criminal consequences. However, it is not possible to determine whether this constitutes a criminal offense. The presumption of innocence applies. However, the Fit Analytics employee who spoke to Gründerszene does not want to take any further action against his company.