Advanced Digital Grants Special Options To Retain Execs
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -- Advanced Digital Information Corp. (ADIC) made special, one-time stock option grants to help retain its chairman and other executives in fiscal 2002, the company said Monday.
Many outstanding stock options hadn't been enhancing retention because Advanced Digital's stock price was depressed, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The storage-management software provider made the one-time grants in May 2002 at exercise prices of $8.37 a share. The executives also got other option grants as part of their annual compensation in August at exercise prices of $5.255, the filing said.
Shares of Advanced Digital closed Friday at $6.85.
While Advanced Digital hasn't paid annual bonuses to its executives for the past two fiscal years, several executives have realized gains from exercising stock options.
Chief Technology Officer Said Rahmani-Khezri was the most active, exercising 197,174 options for a realized gain of $1.4 million during fiscal 2002. He got 60,000 options in fiscal 2002, ended Oct. 31, half from the one-time grant, the filing said.
Chairman and Chief Executive Peter van Oppen realized $392,836 in gains from exercising 126,000 options in fiscal 2002. He got 100,000 options in fiscal 2002, half from the special grant.
As of Oct. 31, van Oppen held 257,500 vested options valued at $116,950 and 412,500 unvested options valued at $149,750. The value is based on the options that were in-the-money, meaning the exercise price was below the share price at the time.
Advanced Digital said van Oppen declined a salary increase for fiscal 2003 because of the challenging economic environment and the company's strategy to focus resources on research, development, sales and marketing.
The chief executive earned a salary of $340,000 for fiscal 2002, compared with $330,533 for the prior year.
Advanced Digital also said that Shannon van Oppen, the chief executive's wife and human resources director for 15 years, switched to a part-time employee in October and now receives an annual salary of $60,000.
Advanced Digital paid Shannon van Oppen $102,381 in salary in fiscal 2002, compared with $81,266 the prior year. She also received 20,000 stock options in May with an exercise price of $8.37 a share, the filing said.
Advanced Digital said all outstanding loans to executives were repaid prior to maturity in October. The company loaned $1.5 million to three executives to exercise stock options that were set to expire soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the filing said. |
