Google’s 15,600 inside bondholders to see a profit. What about outside?

On Tuesday Google reported that over 15,600 employees exchanged options to buy roughly 7.6 million company shares under the unusual program launched to retain the Internet giant's top talent even as its share price is sliding down. Earlier in January Google announced that it would allow employees with stock options that have lost value thanks to the company's falling share price to substitute them for new options with a lower strike price.

Well, what does all this mean? It means that except the one-for-one exchange an employee who received their stock options last year when Google was trading at about $600 would have to wait until the company's shares outstrip that level so as to be able to sell them and see a profit out of it. Thus, the new program of Google is a next sly trick of the company when people inside of the company will see their profits while outside shareholders will have to wait for a significant uptick in the company's share price.

An estimated modification charge for the Google will account for $460 million over the vesting periods of the new employee options, which range from six months to roughly five years. The strike price for the new options will be $308.57 according to the Google’s regulatory filing. As of Monday Google accepted cancellation options from 15,642 employees which is 92.7% of the shares eligible for the exchange.