I am surprised more attention hasn’t been focused on Alphabet earmarking a whopping $30 billion of the proceeds to cover the 2026 calendar year tax obligations associated with the vesting of employee equity awards.
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So rather than issuing a larger pre-tax number of shares to its employees, Alphabet issues a smaller post-tax number of shares to employees ($X*(1-tax rate)) and issues the tax effect-driven number of shares ($X*tax rate) to public.
I don't see any economic difference between the two arrangements, or any reason to be bothered by it.

For me, it's not the difference between the two methods (you're right, it's largely a wash), it's that this is highlighting the comp itself.

(a) What is the current market value of the shares issued as employee compensation in the last decade?
(b) What is the current market value of the shares created via option exercise of options issued to staff, net of the proceeds to the company at strike due to exercise?
(c) What was the total amount expensed as compensation in the company's books for the sum of those two?

Handing out shares like sweets is not very good management. The current market value of the A shares that Berkshire issued to buy Dexter Shoes is $17.83 billion. That should be a clear lesson for every CEO, but somehow it isn't.

Jim