Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nbfm who wrote (43697)	10/7/1999 4:50:00 PM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 152472

This guy has it all over Eisner! <g> Front-Page Telecom News October 7, 1999 Source: Knight-Ridder Newspapers Accumulated Option Grants Will Benefit Sprint's Top Executives The Kansas City Star, Missouri via NewsEdge Corporation : Oct. 6--Can you say "ka-ching"? When Sprint Corp. Chief Executive Officer William T. Esrey said last week that the priority of Sprint's management team was to maximize shareholder value, he wasn't kidding. Thousands of Sprint shareholders will be looking at vastly inflated numbers when they calculate their net worth this week, and the numbers could look even better if the merger with MCI WorldCom Inc. delivers on its promised growth. Sprint employees may be worried about their jobs, but those who have participated in the company's employee stock option plan should have some peace of mind. All options outstanding for at least one year are automatically vested under the terms of the agreement with MCI WorldCom, said Michael Fuller, president of Sprint's local telephone division. And nowhere will there be a bigger collective sigh of satisfaction than among Sprint's top executives, who have amassed some colossal option grants in the last two years. Options granted to Esrey in the last two years alone are now worth about $468 million on paper. Sprint President Ronald LeMay also is sitting pretty. The options granted him in the last two years have a paper value of about $293 million. Those numbers assume a value of $76 a share for Sprint's primary FON stock and about $85 a share for Sprint PCS, including the premium for PCS shareholders that was included in the MCI WorldCom agreement. It also assumes that neither Esrey nor LeMay has exercised any of the options granted them during the last two years, which is clearly not the case for LeMay and impossible to determine with any precision for Esrey. Suffice to say, however, that they will not want, even if they don't stick around with MCI WorldCom. Sprint's board has enacted contingency employment agreements for executives Esrey, LeMay and Art Krause, the company's chief financial officer. The agreements provide for separation pay if any are involuntarily terminated after the merger. Benefits include salary payments for 35 months and three payments equal to the highest short- and long-term compensation received during the three years preceding termination, plus life, disability, dental and medical insurance, according to Sprint's latest proxy report. ----- Visit The Kansas City Star on the World Wide Web at www.kcstar.com. (c) 1999, The Kansas City Star. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.