ESOP Termination before Company bought

[jtfitz57]

In July our ESOP plan was terminated. After much deliberation and consultation I decided on the default action for my shares, which was to sell the shares and rollover into my 401K. While I could have kept the shares, I thought it was probably time divest myself of so many shares of the company I work for (Enron effect). As "luck" would have it, immediately after the final day to make the decision the company's 2nd quarter report came out which caused the stock to lose share price. Also, I assume the act of selling so many shares during liquidation also played a part in dropping the share price further.  Needless to say, I was unhappy when my total amount of money transferred after the stock sale was approximately $40K less than when I made my decision. The stock price has since gained what it had lost prior to when I made my decision to sell the shares.

I just got word that my company is being sold. The price that they have determined for all outstanding shares is significant. I would have made $180k more than what I now have. My question is: Is there something fishy in this scenario and would I have any recourse? Or am I just SOL for choosing not to take the stock. I think that the administrators should have looked out for my best interests and not what would make the sale of the company easier. I have a hard time not believing that the sale of the company had been agreed upon prior to the ESOP termination. 

[ESOP Guy]

So was this an ESOP of shares that are publicly traded or not?

I would point out you have mostly speculation instead of facts at this point.  Courts care about facts not what you think is true. Also, mere bad timing of a sale you agreed to is not actionable. 

[jtfitz57]

Yes, publicly traded stock. I realize I don't have a leg to stand on but I am angry with the timing of everything and the fact that I can connect the dots and see things now that I couldn't before.

[jpod]

You may have a leg to stand on.  How big was the ESOP (number of participants and $$)?  If large enough an ERISA plaintiff's lawyer may be interested in at least doing some preliminary investigation.  It's a public company so he/she may find enough just from readily available information to think there's potential.