Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2006 > August > 24 > Entry
The Delldrums
I was at a party Friday night for a Web site launch when I met a guy who’s been working at Dell for just shy of a decade.
It used to be that when you met someone from Dell, you’d wonder if they were rich yet and congratulate them on the company’s seemingly always-rising stock price.
Now it’s like talking to someone who has a family member in the hospital. You have to tread lightly and try not to seem callous.
“Oh, wow, how are things going over there?” I asked.
He looked grim. “Battery recall, SEC investigation, stock price. It’s pretty miserable.”
I asked what the mood is at Dell. “They gave us these stock options and everybody called them Golden Handcuffs because that’s what kept you there.” Now, he says, he’s being offered stock options at about $60 a share, far above the $21.51 Dell stock is selling for now, making the options pretty worthless.
At 9 p.m., Tito’s Vodka started offering free drinks, and I hoped that was some small consolation on a Friday night away from Round Rock.
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