Sonder Announces a Stock Option Exchange Plan to Retain Employees

Sonder has a multifaceted plan to achieve positive free cash flow sometime in 2023, but it announced another prong — a stock option exchange program for employees whose existing stock options are "under water."

That's the way CEO and Chairman Francis Davidson described the status of employees' stock options in citing the need for a one-time exchange so that Sonder might retain talented employees, and achieve its goals, including getting to positive quarterly free cash flow.

"This will provide employees a voluntary onetime opportunity to exchange existing underwater stock options for new stock options with the same terms at a strike price equal to fair market value," Davidson told financial analysts during the company's second quarter earnings call Wednesday. "We strongly believe our team members are our most valuable asset, and this is a critical onetime event to properly incentivize and retain them."

The company hasn't yet provided details on th