Know what your offer is worth. Read vesting and dilution.
Every class teaches one idea, asks you three questions on it and then puts it to work on a real company.
A grant fixes the number of units. The share price on the vesting day fixes the money.
Vesting is a condition and not a calendar courtesy. Two weeks can cost a whole instalment.
Vesting is a payday. The company keeps about a third of the shares to cover the tax and sends the cash.
Grant date fair value is fixed on day one. What you end up with is not.
An RSU gives you the share. An option gives you the right to buy it, and only pays above the strike.
Intrinsic value is price minus strike. At a private company the price is an estimate and the shares may not be sellable.
Dilution is the bill for equity pay and existing shareholders pay it. Diluted EPS is where you read it.
Buybacks turn dilution into a cash cost. They do not make equity pay free.
Share-based compensation over revenue tells you how much of the business is being paid out in stock.
A discount plus a lookback means you buy below the market on the day you buy. Read your own plan's terms.
A listing can vest years of units on one morning. Tax follows vesting and the lockup follows its own clock.
Vested equity gets settled. Unvested equity gets converted and keeps its dates. The merger agreement says which.
Every figure below was checked against the filing itself in September 2026, through the SEC's XBRL company-concept API, the XBRL-rendered statements in the filing's own financial report, or the filing text. Figures in millions of US dollars unless stated.
| Company | Period | Figure | Value | Concept checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | FY ended Sep 30 2023 | Share-based compensation expense | 10,833 | ShareBasedCompensation |
| Apple | FY2023 | Total net sales | 383,285 | RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax |
| Apple | FY2023 | Net income | 96,995 | NetIncomeLoss |
| Apple | FY2023 | RSUs granted / weighted-average grant date fair value | 88,768 thousand / $150.87 | share-based compensation note. Rendered statement R69 |
| Apple | FY2023 | RSU rollforward | opening 201,501 at $109.48. vested (101,878) at $97.31. cancelled (8,144) at $127.98. closing 180,247 at $135.91 | same note. Rolls forward exactly |
| Apple | FY2023 | Fair value of RSUs vested | $15.9 billion | same note. Rendered statement R68 |
| Apple | FY2023 | Shares withheld for taxes | 37 million | same note |
| Apple | FY2023 | Payments for taxes related to net share settlement of equity awards | 5,431 | PaymentsRelatedToTaxWithholdingForShareBasedCompensation. Financing activities |
| Apple | Sep 30 2023 | Unrecognised compensation cost / period | $18.6 billion over a weighted-average 2.5 years | EmployeeServiceShareBasedCompensationNonvestedAwardsTotalCompensationCostNotYetRecognized |
| Apple | FY2023 | Weighted-average basic / diluted shares | 15,744,231 thousand / 15,812,547 thousand | WeightedAverageNumberOfSharesOutstandingBasic and WeightedAverageNumberOfDilutedSharesOutstanding |
| Apple | FY2023 | Basic / diluted EPS | $6.16 / $6.13 | EarningsPerShareBasic and EarningsPerShareDiluted. Both reconcile against net income |
| Apple | Oct 20 2023 | Shares outstanding on the 10-K cover | 15,552,752 thousand | dei:EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding |
| Apple | FY2023 | Payments for repurchase of common stock | 77,550 | PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock |
| Apple | Nov 6 2024 plan | ESPP purchase price and periods | not less than the lesser of 85% of fair market value on the offering date or 85% on the last trading day of the offering period. Two offering periods a year of about six months. Maximum 27 months | Employee Stock Purchase Plan as amended. Exhibit 10.1 to the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Dec 28 2024, filed Jan 31 2025 |
| Oracle | FY ended May 31 2026 | Option rollforward | opening 41 million at $52.58. granted or assumed 15 million at $279.53. exercised (25 million) at $50.04. cancelled (10 million) at $60.51. closing 21 million at $217.63 | employee benefit plans note. Rendered statement R73. Rolls forward and reprices consistently |
| Oracle | May 31 2026 | Options exercisable / weighted-average exercise price | 5 million / $49.37 | same note |
| Dec 31 2023 | Weighted-average exercise price of options outstanding | $17.83 | ShareBasedCompensationArrangementByShareBasedPaymentAwardOptionsOutstandingWeightedAverageExercisePrice. Comparative in the FY2024 10-K | |
| Mar 2024 | IPO price per share | $34.00 | Form 424B4 final prospectus dated Mar 20 2024. Cover page | |
| Snowflake | FY ended Jan 31 2026 | Share-based compensation / revenue | $1,599.5 million / $4,683.9 million = 34.2% | ShareBasedCompensation and RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax |
| Snowflake | FY ended Jan 31 2025 | Share-based compensation / revenue | $1,479.3 million / $3,626.4 million = 40.8% | same concepts |
| Airbnb | FY2023 | Share-based compensation / revenue | $1,120 million / $9,917 million = 11.3% | same concepts |
| Airbnb | Q4 2020 | One-time share-based compensation charge at IPO | $2.8 billion, plus $103 million of related payroll and stock-settlement taxes | fourth quarter 2020 shareholder letter. Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed Feb 25 2021 |
| Airbnb | FY2020 / FY2019 | Share-based compensation | $3,001.9 million / $97.5 million | ShareBasedCompensation. FY2020 revenue $3,378.2 million, so 88.9% |
| Activision Blizzard | Jan 2022 | Merger consideration | $95.00 per share in cash | Agreement and Plan of Merger with Microsoft. Exhibit 2.1 to the Form 8-K filed Jan 19 2022, section 1.1 |
| Activision Blizzard | Oct 13 2023 | Treatment of equity awards at closing | vested options cancelled for $95.00 less exercise price. underwater options cancelled for no payment. vested units cancelled for $95.00 per underlying share. unvested awards converted into Microsoft awards at an exchange ratio of $95.00 divided by Microsoft's five-day volume-weighted average price, keeping the vesting schedule. awards vesting within 120 days after closing accelerated before closing | merger agreement section 2.8 and the Form 8-K reporting completion |
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