Re: PC DOCS Shareholder Vote
I would like to make any sane investor listening aware of the issues to be raised at the annual meeting, and why he/she should not support management of the subject of the re-pricing.
Ruby Osten, the CEO is grossly overpaid for a unique level of incompetence. Look at Documentum (their cheif competitor) and see a CEO with less than $US 200K in base compensation (vs. ~$US 460K for Osten). And keep in mind as well that DCTM kept operating margins at respectable levels during a trying 1996 for the EDM market, while the captains of the PC DOCS ship eroded our equity and took operating margins from the high teens down to two friggin' percent. We must tell Osten that his salary is abhorrent. As this company is in the hands of the small investor, I get the unmistakeable feeling they're trying to pull a fast one and are dangerously close to getting away with it.
On the subject of the repricing itself....I feel strongly that there are better ways to align the interests of shareholders and key employees. The thought of excluding the officers from repricing is devishly simple, yet accomplishes the goal of rewarding the value-driving employees (the programmers and engineers) while sharing our pain with the top management. Note some facts that have been verified. 1) Pg. 7 - Top four officers hold 852,967 options which are exercisable, meaning that they are fully vested. This means that of the 1,570,900 options re-priceable, an astonishing 54% belong to those four such-and-suches. 2) Ruby Osten was granted 11.35% of the options during F97. The average for a mature software company is 1-2%!!! Go check DCTM's last circular (or FILE). I've checked 48 others.
I say, until they find a way to re-price our stock, let's hit management where it hurts by stopping this obvious cash grab. A "NO" vote would result in a special meeting, where other possiblities to reward the key employees could be explored. |
