CPTH offers its employees repriced options:
Critical Path offers repriced employee stock options
SAN FRANCISCO, March 9 (Reuters) - E-mail infrastructure software vendor Critical Path Inc. <CPTH.O> on Friday said it has offered re-priced stock options to staff in an effort to retain workers at the company, which has been rocked by accounting irregularities.
The San Francisco company has approximately 1,000 employees, most of whom will be eligible to receive new options at the price of $1, a spokesman said. The plan is set to take effect in the coming weeks and options will vest monthly over two years, he said.
The company will issue options equal to the number of outstanding options with strike prices of $1 or greater. Unexercised options owned by employees also will remain in effect, the company said.
Critical Path, which sells corporate messaging, document handling, information sharing and other services, said that some 35 senior company executives will also be eligible to exchange existing stock options for an equivalent number of shares.
Options held by David Hayden, Critical Path's founder and executive chairman, and other members of the company's board of directors are not eligible for re-pricing, the company said.
"Today, we are taking another important step to secure Critical Path's future. We want to give the people of Critical Path a solid stake in the future of the company," Critical Path spokesman Tom Birkeland, told Reuters.
Critical Path shares closed at $2-3/4 on Friday, a fraction of their all-time high of $150.25 in April 1999.
The stock has fallen by more than 70 percent since the company said on Feb. 15 that previously reported fourth-quarter 2000 revenue would fall by between $6.5 million to $8 million resulting in a near doubling of its pro forma loss.
Between $2.3 million to $3.8 million of that contested revenue might still be booked as sales in 2001, but the company is also probing up to $2 million in revenue that may have been improperly booked as revenue in the third quarter, the company has said.
"We have our arms around it. It was a Q3 and Q4 phenomenon," Larry Reinhold, Critical Path's Chief Financial Officer, said in a recent interview.
In the wake of the controversy, the company's chief executive resigned. Two other top executives left and as many as 10 sales people were fired, the company said.
21:30 03-09-01 |
