Key insights
- Blue Origin revamps employee stock options to compete with SpaceX, adding liquidity events beyond IPOs. This move, while aimed at retaining talent, signals potential delays in Blue Origin's IPO plans, indirectly benefiting SpaceX's market position. The cash-settled nature of the options limits employee ownership, potentially impacting long-term alignment.
May 5 (Reuters) - Jeff Bezos’s space venture, Blue Origin, has outlined a new stock plan for employees in an attempt to put an end to staff unrest and make the incentives more competitive with rival SpaceX, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the matter.
Bezos’s efforts to make staff incentives more competitive come on the back of an intensifying rivalry between Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which recently filed for a U.S. initial public offering targeting a valuation of about $1.75 trillion.
The rocket maker briefed staff last week on a revamped incentive scheme after employees’ widespread anger over its previous plan, as options under the earlier plan started to expire without any payout, the newspaper reported.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Blue Origin did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Several current and former employees told FT they were angry that the rocket maker was allowing options under the original scheme to expire after setting criteria that only allowed them to pay out in the event of an IPO or sale of the company.
The new plan seeks to address some of these complaints, and sets out a new strike price for the options of $9.50 a share, the FT report said.
The stock options are cash-settled, which means they will pay out rather than give employees an ownership stake, the report said.
The scheme also adds to the list of "liquidity events" that would trigger a payout, and now includes external funding rounds or tender offers, the FT said, citing documents seen by them.
Dave Limp, Blue Origin’s chief executive, told staff the group had no immediate plans for an IPO, the FT reported.