The total amount of money Lee and other executives left on the table by quitting early was small in private-equity terms (under ~$1 million), so why not pay it out to avoid criticism? Because Silver Lake is standing on principle, the investor said: The firm hired Lee to help Skype on its journey from purchase to sale, and he quit in the middle.Employees who quit 366 days after joining a company-the day after the options vest-aren't viewed kindly.) (Most VC-backed option plans have a one-year 'cliff vest' in which you get 12 months of options after a year's employment. This quit-as-soon-as-some-of-your-options-vest, the investor said, would be an 'eyebrow raiser' even in normal Silicon Valley VC deals. If he had remained at the company until the Microsoft deal closed, thus completing the mission he had been hired for, he would have gotten his options. Lee, the investor pointed out, quit voluntarily 13 months after joining Skype.In private-equity's view, executives only deserve a piece of the equity pie if they see that mission through, not if they quit in the middle. Specifically, private-equity firms recruit executives with a very specific mission: To fix the company and then sell it, a process that often takes several years. Private equity firms have a different view of option compensation than VC firms, the Skype investor said.

Skype sex scandal