Stock Trading and Other Things

What happens to a company's stock options when the company is acquired by a public company?

i assume they are converted to the public company stock 1-for-1 or on another agreements stipulated in the purchase. but what happens to the vesting schedule? are they automatically vested once the purchase is complete and options are converted or do they keep the same vesting schedule.

ex. i have 1000 shares, 500 are non-vested at the time of purchase.
a) nothing. they keep the same vesting schedule
b) acquiring company dictates new vesting schedule based on their stock policy.
c) they are all automatically vested once purchase is complete.

Public Comments

1. That is usually determined through negotiations between each companies board of directors prior to agreeing to the merger.

If you have to pick one go with C. They are automatically vested once purchase is complete... at least that is what happened when the company I used to work for was bought. Everyone was 100% vested automatically.. which was cool because I was only partially vested before we got bought.