Of the 62% in Enron stock, how much was the result of the Company match? Not much I bet. During the 10 day lock-out period, the stock went down approximately $3.
If they want to claim that they should be awarded the cash equivalent of the stock as it was contributed to the plan, fine. That would be at the price the stock was at the time of the contribution. A lot would be at very low prices, probably. Some may be at the higher end.
The stock slide from $90 to 1 is not all that unusual, unfortunately. Look at JDSU, Lucent, Rambus, Global Crossing, Real Networks, etc. Remember the NASDAQ was at 5,000 in February of 1999.
The decline of Real Networks is the reason our (idiot) Senator Maria Cant(vote)well has her hand out. She had millions on paper in Real Networks stock when she began her run for the Senate (it financed her seat - OK when it's a Dem, the focus of all media reporting when it's a Pubbie), now she has campaign debt she can't pay back without liquidating her hard assets because the Real stock is worthless.
Good points. Other posters have helped me a bit with this. Isn't that what friends are for? :)