Zeev: <<750,000 shares... possible twice as much or 1,500,000>>
I think he was wanting to exercise in the Nov-Dec time frame at US$5-6/share, so let's assume the average, US$5.50. (Remember, he did not even close the loan until 1Q97.) So if you assume a marginal tax rate of 40% (just a guess), that means he needed to exercise only 500,000 shares, much more easily absorbed.
<<a CEO selling half his position would have given the wrong signal>>
I think any sale at the time by the CEO, given the state of events, would have sent a negative signal to the markets.
<<exercisable at the time>>
You may be right, but with the assumptions above, this would only represent about 17% of his total options.
Bottom line... IMO, the timeline alone indicates that McLeod's firing was not connected in any way with the loan, and the Board's rationale for wanting to avoid the company's CEO exercising any options at the time (purely from a signalling standpoint) seems pretty reasonable given the rather uncertain state of events at the time.
Razor |
