After Elon Musk acquired Twitter, one of the biggest questions left out in the open for employees and shareholders alike was what would end up happening to their shares of stock. To answer it simply: after the purchase, each share was cashed out at a price of $54.20.

For existing employees, an additional concern was what would happen to their future equity payouts as they vested. Elon announced via email earlier that all future equity grants would be in the form of stock options as he brings the company private. The difference between stock options and RSUs being that stock options would require a purchase of the shares upon vesting by an employee. Stock options would also give employees less immediate liquidity as you cannot sell private company stock without either a tender offer, which can be setup by a company, or a some secondary market.

This could imply a similar setup to Elon’s model over at SpaceX, with 2 liquidation events organized by the company itself (as tender offers) every year at a set valuation. In this setup, either new investors or the company itself buys these shares from existing employees to provide liquidity on a private market.

Given that Twitter’s valuation has likely significantly fallen since the acquisition, it will be interesting to see how employees react to the new compensation practices, and whether there will be any adjustments to stock packages overall.

View compensation packages for Twitter employees here.