Company offering shares as part of package - clueless??

Hi,

I am thinking of moving to another company but finding the decision very hard to make. The new company is offering me shares in the company but I know nothing about shares and I am not sure how important this should be in my decision. The shares have not floated yet so I cannot find out anything about their value or can I?

Can anyone offer me any advise on the importance of company shares.

Thanks,

Tilly.

My gut reaction is that I don't like it but every situation is different

TBH even a 49% share in a private company isn't worth a damn where someone else owns 51% because you have no real say in the running of the company.

Who decides what the market value of the shares is and how is that calculated?

Who is going to buy shares from you in the event that you leave the company or decide to sell if there is no publicly available market for them?

Are there dividends issued every year on the shares that are already on issue?

Will these be new shares issued or are you buying someone else's shares?

I don't know who decides the market value, I haven't a notion who would buy them and I don't know if they are someone else's shares. I really am clueless but these are questions I will ask and look into so thank you. I would be an employee, they offered me a package and I declined it and then they came back with an offer of 8000 company shares, they said the shares haven't floated yet so I'm not sure how valuable they are to me.

About 10 years ago I was offered share options as part of my package, the company never floated so the offer was meaningless. But if it is genuine it would be best to check if there are any restrictions on selling your shares. Personally I would be suspicious.