In a lawsuit filed Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court (Archbold, et al. v. eBay, Inc., et al.), eight plaintiffs charged that eBay wrongfully cancelled their eBay stock options when eBay sold the company they work for, Butterfields Auctioneers Corp., in July 2002. The lawsuit was filed as a class action on behalf of all Butterfields employees whose options were cancelled at the same time, a group of more than 100 individuals. The plaintiffs charge that eBay is in breach of contract for canceling their unvested stock options and/or accelerating the date by which they had to exercise their vested stock options when eBay sold Butterfields.
