Very good question. According to an SEC filing in 1999 (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/883780/000 0883780-99-000067-index.html) Frankel owned about 72% of the 722,000 shares Nullsoft sold to AOL. That was worth about $62 million in May 1999, the time of purchase. The filing says Frankel could have sold 90% of them any time after July 1999 and the other 10% any time after May 2000.
Bottom line, by my math, the most he could have made from selling the shares is $107,000,000. If for some bizarre reason he decided to hold on to them until today, they'd be worth about $16,000,000.
As for options, it's highly unlikely they'd be worth anything these days. AOL's stock was worth $119 a share when it bought Nullsoft. Now it's worth $15 a share. AOL could have priced the options down, but not that much without shareholders screaming.
AOL could have offered other sweeteners to keep Frankel there (and likely did), but they'd pale against the tens of millions they paid Frankel right off the bat. Note that he says that he does have "respect" for AOL. Maybe he just believed he could take the rough edges off a big corporation. And get up their nose in the process.
Slashdot Mirror
Very good question. According to an SEC filing in 1999 (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/883780/000 0883780-99-000067-index.html) Frankel owned about 72% of the 722,000 shares Nullsoft sold to AOL. That was worth about $62 million in May 1999, the time of purchase. The filing says Frankel could have sold 90% of them any time after July 1999 and the other 10% any time after May 2000.
Bottom line, by my math, the most he could have made from selling the shares is $107,000,000. If for some bizarre reason he decided to hold on to them until today, they'd be worth about $16,000,000.
As for options, it's highly unlikely they'd be worth anything these days. AOL's stock was worth $119 a share when it bought Nullsoft. Now it's worth $15 a share. AOL could have priced the options down, but not that much without shareholders screaming.
AOL could have offered other sweeteners to keep Frankel there (and likely did), but they'd pale against the tens of millions they paid Frankel right off the bat. Note that he says that he does have "respect" for AOL. Maybe he just believed he could take the rough edges off a big corporation. And get up their nose in the process.