Excellence in Ownership Awards: Nominations Open Until February 28!

The Excellence in Ownership Awards recognize employee-owned companies that have demonstrated a commitment to promoting employee ownership and innovation in their workplaces. These companies and their employees often emerge as industry leaders, pioneering best practices in a range of areas.

Excise Tax Does Not Apply in ESOP Liquidation

In PLR 200135044, the IRS concluded that a company that was terminating its ESOP on acquisition by another company through an asset acquisition could distribute cash to the ESOP participants without incurring an excise tax under Code Section 4978.

Executive Fired Without Cause Can Exercise Options

In Scribner v. WorldCom, Inc. (9th Cir., No. 99-35239), the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Donald Scribner, am executive at WorldCom, could exercise the unvested options he was holding at the time of his termination because he was terminated without cause.

Experimental Economics and Employee Ownership

Philip Mellizo, an assistant professor at the College of Wooster, performed a game theory experiment to explore the impact of ownership incentives on job performance in a tightly controlled experimental setting.