Stock Options

They are smart people who let millions of dollars slip through their fingers. Their mistake: Leaving a job at an early start-up that went on to become super-hot, or, just as bad, turning those jobs down.

When the Facebook IPO arrives, many of its employees are almost certain to hit it rich -- and they're getting an extra benefit no one would have expected: The company will pay the taxes on their stock profits. Crazy? Recent history says not. Here's why:

Facebook may finally be ready to go public in the second quarter of 2012. At an estimated valuation of $100 billion, the social networking giant is probably no longer a ground-floor opportunity -- but could even that number be too low?

Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford, have been awarded $56.5 million and $42.4 million in stock, respectively, in recognition for the company's stunning turnaround, which resulted in the automaker raking in $6.6 billion last year -- its best performance in more than a decade.

Considering how often airline industry executives complain about how hard it is to run a profitable carrier, one might expect their efforts could go unrewarded -- at least monetarily. Not so at the new United Continental Holdings, where big post-merger raises are coming for top management.

On Friday, the Justice Department announced it had settled with six tech giants that had made anticompetitive agreements not to poach top employees from each other. That may have been an issue two years ago, but not now as a major talent war rages in Silicon Valley.

When BHP Billiton made its offer to acquire Potash Corp., two residents of Madrid, Spain, made $1.1 million by buying out-of-the-money call options ahead of the announcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission claims. The SEC is suing the investors, and has frozen $1.1 million of their assets.

Auto giant General Motors is expected to file for its IPO as soon as Wednesday. The filing is likely to include preferred as well as common shares and will help the government unload its 61% stake in the carmaker.

The Internet rumor mill has actor William Shatner being proclaimed a financial genius for supposedly reaping $600 million from being Priceline's spokesman. But the numbers don't add up -- it's not logical, as Spock would say.

The furor over pay on Wall Street and in executive suites isn't likely to fade anytime soon: Wall Street employees saw their bonuses increase by 17% to a collective $20.3 billion in 2009. But a closer look a Corporate America shows that changes for the better are happening.