From Dow Jones--EBay Inc. (EBAY) is being accused in a lawsuit of wrongfully canceling the stock options for employees of its former Butterfields Auctioneers Corp. unit.
EBay, which sold the Butterfields unit in July 2002, was not immediately available to comment on the class-action suit.
In a press release Thursday, the law firms involved in the case said eight plaintiffs filed the suit in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of all Butterfields employees whose options were canceled, a group of more than 100 people.
The plaintiffs are also alleging that EBay accelerated the final date Butterfields' employees could exercise their stock options.
The plaintiffs are seeking relief, an injunction allowing plaintiffs to continue vesting in the stock options, punitive and other damages and attorneys' fees and costs.
According to the lawsuit, EBay's stock option contracts don't contain a provision allowing EBay to cancel previously granted stock options upon the sale of a unit. The plaintiffs allege EBay knew as early as December 2001 that it was going to sell Butterfields, but continued to grant new stock options to employees, trying to entice them to join Butterfields or stay at the unit.
Shares of EBay were trading down 2%, or 86 cents, at $41.21, in composite activity Thursday afternoon.
The plaintiffs are represented by the law firms of Goldstein Demchak Baller Borgen & Dardarian, Ackermann & Tilajef and Yablonski, Both & Edelman.
-Geoffrey Rogow; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com
