7 - History of a Failed Company - The IPO

Amidst all this the c ompany decided to go public to raise money. The President of the company took great pains to explains the concept of ESOP (which should have been the simplest of things for an employee to understand). With big words like "You grow with the Company and the Company grows with you" ESOPS were distributed.
The ESOPs were standard with after of three years of gestation period when 1/3 rd of the shares were vested, after four years another year another 1/3 rd and the remaining after five years.
Repitition, here was a company with not standing in the market, with no projects in hand (the employees were shown pipeline after pipeline of projects, none of which seemed to drop out of the tap, the same junk was probably projected to the investors) and it was trying to woo its employees with ESOPs which will give fruit after five years.
With all the hype that the promoters managed to churn up the market paid up a litte over 10 USD for the shares and the shares touched 20 USD. People had ESOP at 5 dollars a piece. Must be thinking lucky buggers. Read on for the unfolding of the drama.