Art-
I bought more stock too today, but I also agree with Stagger to a degree. I think that it's possible to believe strongly in a company's product and future, yet still be irked at some of the things that they are doing.
You and I are both happy that the stock price went up so much. I'm ticked that I got whipsawed out of a position when the stocked dropped to 13 1/2 briefly and I was on margin and it cost me 1/2 of my gains. Still, I've got more than a double on my money and that ain't bad for 6 months.
However, I want the stock to go to 50, 100, beyond. All of the longs here do. The irritation about the bonus plan tied to increase in market cap is that it is like running with ankle weights... the faster you go the more the weights drag you down. No company which is losing money and just got a 9 million or so infusion in cash, should turn around and pay $3.4 million of it to the man in charge. That is fiduciarily irresponsible in my book, which is why I voted against item number 2 on the proxy. I did, however, vote for item 1 (re-electing the existing directors), because from a *technical* point of view, I think they have created an excellent product, protected it with patents, and made the right partnerships.
Here's something slightly interesting... the increase is tied strictly to market cap. There are 2 ways market cap can go up: Increase in stock price or increase in number of shares while maintaining the existing stock price. So if Liberty exercises more options, and IATV issues more stock, but the stock price remains steady, and Samuels et al will still pocket a nice chunk of change since the market cap went up. They get rewarded for diluting our stock.
It's easy not to care when you're sitting on a nice profit, and I understand not wanting to rag on the guy who got us here. But I think that blindly approving this option plan is very short-sighted. What if suddenly in 6 months IATV is cash poor? That $3.4 mill would have come in handy. What happens if the stock price tumbles? Samuels et al already got their $3.4 mill in cash. With traditional stock options, since people tend to hold them until they exercise, they get penalized if the stock tanks... not so in this case.
-Mike |
