Employee Ownership Blog

Loren Rodgers

May 22, 2024

Private Equity Giant Blackstone Commits to Employee Stock Grants

On May 21, the Wall Street Journal reported that the alternative asset manager Blackstone would grant equity to the 18,000 employees at its portfolio company Copeland (alternative non-paywalled version at MSN). The Journal article states that under a new initiative Blackstone plans to announce this week, the practice of broad-based ownership interests for employees will apply “to all new deals going forward in which its private-equity business buys control of a company.”

Timothy Garbinsky

May 09, 2024

Employee Ownership, Corey Rosen Featured on Freakonomics Podcast

Following hot on the heels of the 60 Minutes episode this past weekend, employee ownership was the focal point of a recent episode of the popular podcast Freakonomics. Titled "Should Companies Be Owned By Their Workers?," the episode puts host Stephen J. Dubner in conversation with NCEO founder Corey Rosen as well as KKR's Pete Stavros and the Democracy Collaborative's Marjorie Kelly.

Timothy Garbinsky

May 07, 2024

DAWI's Melissa Hoover to Keynote Upcoming Vermont Conference

Our friends at the Vermont Employee Ownership Center are hosting their 22nd annual conference in a few short weeks, on May 31 at the University of Vermont's Davis Center. The event, as usual, promises to be an enriching experience for employee-owned businesses of all types, with sessions on recruitment and retention, ESOP transactions, worker cooperative buyouts, mental health, board composition, and more. There will also be networking for worker coops, ESOP companies, and other employee-owned businesses.

Timothy Garbinsky

May 05, 2024

Private Equity Continues to Make Inroads into the Employee Ownership Space

Since as far back as at least 2017, we've long been tracking the increased activity of private equity firms in the employee ownership space. Their foray into the world of ESOPs, broad-based equity, stock purchase plans, and the like, is, by now, somewhat old hat, but that doesn't stop it from being a frequent point of conversation, even contention, in employee ownership circles. But the fact remains that, no matter how you feel about their motivations or their methods, they are here, as evidenced by a feature on KKR, Pete Stavros, and Ownership Works on tonight's episode of 60 Minutes.

Corey Rosen

April 23, 2024

Employee Ownership Making Strides in South Africa

At the Inaugural Employee Share Ownership Conference in South Africa on April 23, leaders from government, unions, and business convened to review the progress made in spreading broad-based employee ownership in South Africa and what might be done to move it forward.

Corey Rosen

April 15, 2024

Wisconsin Bill Would Provide Tax Incentives for Employee Ownership Feasibility and Conversion

Wisconsin Assembly Bill 1217 would have provided that the “Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation may certify a business to claim a nonrefundable income tax credit for an amount equal to 70 percent of costs related to converting the business to a worker-owned cooperative or 50 percent of the costs related to converting the business to an employee ownership trust or an employee stock ownership plan. The credit is limited to a maximum amount of $100,000.” The bill would also have provided a state capital gains tax exemption for sales to ESOPs, worker cooperatives, or employee ownership trusts.

Corey Rosen

April 12, 2024

Bipartisan Bill Extends ESOP Company DoD Procurement Program to All Agencies

In 2022, the National Defense Authorization Act created the first-ever government contracting program to specifically encourage ESOPs. Section 874 of the new law created a Department of Defense (DoD) pilot program to allow companies that are or become 100% ESOP-owned to receive noncompete follow-on contracts for their work. The award is contingent on finding that the contractor’s performance is satisfactory or better. The program will run for five years, and the Government Accountability Office is required to provide an assessment of it within three years of the program’s enactment.

Nancy Wiefek

April 10, 2024

University of Minnesota Extension Research Provides Insights on Rural Business Owners

There are interesting and helpful resources and research coming from Michael Darger and others at the University of Minnesota Extension program. Most recently, they conducted a rigorous survey of the state’s business owners that offers real insights into how employee ownership fits into their plans.

Timothy Garbinsky

April 08, 2024

ESOP CEO Authors White Paper Encouraging EO in Healthcare Industry

Increasingly, private equity (PE) is becoming a bigger part of American life through its unceasing ability to acquire businesses across all sectors of American life. Operating on the principle of aggressive growth, PE firms often seek to maximize their investment by ruthlessly cutting costs wherever possible while trying to, at a minimum, sustain their revenue, meaning that companies often end up charging the same or more for their goods or services while their quality declines. The inevitable outcomes in these situations are concerning enough in the publishing and entertainment industries, but what happens when the service that's replaced is essential and life-saving healthcare?

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