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Do Poker Stars Employees own part of poker stars?

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  1. Bulldogmafia Bulldogmafia is offline

    Marietta, GA
    United States

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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 11:20am)

    I have heard that PS Employees own a % of poker stars (25% I think) but no sure. Is this true?

    BTW- pretty sick of pokerstars to make $175K in vig on the three majors (Warm up, Million and 2nd chance) alone this past Saturday.....
  2. xxbossmanxx xxbossmanxx is offline Plays poker like a X-Boxxx

    Detroit, MI
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 12:11pm) in reply to Bulldogmafia

    Ya, thats what I read a long time ago. The founding coder guy had 75% and the orig employees had the other 25% Lee could have easily made 25-50 million with his cut I bet. I bet that some of the original hosts are even millionaires with their stock options.
  3. xTEDFORRESTx xTEDFORRESTx is offline

    Bucharest
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 12:28pm) in reply to xxbossmanxx

    stock options? stars is a private company.
  4. Mr Galt Mr Galt is offline sister-in-law's a ho

    Overland Park, KS
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 12:50pm) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    Yes, and private companies can issue stock options.
  5. xTEDFORRESTx xTEDFORRESTx is offline

    Bucharest
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 12:55pm) in reply to Mr Galt

    Yes, and unless the company goes public, or has an intention to go public, they are worthless.

    Please explain how people "became millionaires" with stars stock options.
  6. bobeggy bobeggy is offline

    Edmonton
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 1:03pm) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    Unless stars has a buyback program in place it's pretty difficult to liquidate your stake in a private company. You would have to approach stars about what other investors did to liquidate their stakes.
  7. bravecow bravecow is offline

    Sacramento, CA
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 1:10pm) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    Unless pokerstars is a publically traded issue, the options would expire with no value unless there were options for the options giving the option to sell back the options for company stock, or later expiration dates that then could be worth alot if they honor the networth of the value in % of growth to the employee's original purchase price. Bla Bla
  8. scc1006 scc1006 is offline

    Kent, OH
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 1:28pm) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    Ted - you obviously don't know to much about stocks and how they relate to private companies. Private companies can have stock and stock options, just like publicly traded companies, however, being a private company, they are not available to everyone, and the company can decide exactly how much each share of stock is worth. Therefore, if they did have stock options, they would not be worthless, as you claim.
  9. xTEDFORRESTx xTEDFORRESTx is offline

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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 1:34pm) in reply to scc1006

    Please enlighten me on who is making a market on stars Stock options, and how many millionaires have been created from these options.
  10. 8ROM 8ROM is offline

    Lymm
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 2:26pm) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    pokerstars is 75% owned by Isai Scheinberg, an ex- senior programmer for IBM and the remaining 25% is owned by the staff. lol at Lee getting $50m for saying hello at the final table of the sunday million, i seriously doubt that.
  11. Frank1The1Tank Frank1The1Tank is offline

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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 2:51pm) in reply to Bulldogmafia

    Stock options in a private company are almost the same as in a public company. The difference is that in order to sell your private stocks, you must find buyers privately. Whereas a public company can put them on an open market to find buyers. That doesn't mean the stocks have no value, but they can be harder to sell since the company is private. Also the company has to allow this (some private companies wouldnt want random people coming in and owning a piece of the company).
     
  12. R_U_Nuts R_U_Nuts is offline

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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 3:59pm) in reply to Frank1The1Tank

    They can also be paid dividens off of the options without actually selling them.
  13. xTEDFORRESTx xTEDFORRESTx is offline

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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 5:31pm) in reply to R_U_Nuts

    They can also make a deal with the local Subway franchise to give people with options a dollar off a footlong. So what?
  14. xxbossmanxx xxbossmanxx is offline Plays poker like a X-Boxxx

    Detroit, MI
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 9:15pm) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    How many billions did the 75% get? Even if lee had only 3% do the math, it's huuuuge.

    Also, if you own a piece of a company that is making massive profits there can be dividends. the spare 25% is huge.
  15. heatherbrook heatherbrook is offline

    Olathe, KS
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 10:39pm) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    Again Ted you make a brilliant comment.
  16. EddieO EddieO is offline

    Tampa, FL
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    Apr 14th, 2008 (4/14/2008 11:52pm) in reply to heatherbrook

    ted forrest shines once again
  17. donkkkkk donkkkkk is offline

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    Apr 15th, 2008 (4/15/2008 12:11am) in reply to xTEDFORRESTx

    i know they have 10 billion stock options, but you would say no to them if they offered you a share.
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