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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Binx Bolling who wrote (10399)	4/16/2000 9:11:00 PM
From: Ausdauer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

Binx, Regarding options... "I don't think the directors or officers had their options repriced." I didn't state that Directors had options repriced. But in 1998 when Asia was crumbling the Employee Stock Option plan was revised with strike prices reduced from $20 to $10 (post-split dollars from $10 to $5). I think that was a great move and really rewards the hundreds of employees who were faced with options selling at prices above the market value. The second half of 1998 was abysmal for SNDK due to the Asian Flu. Last year we approved 3 amendments to the stock options plan for employees, non-employees and for the employee repurchase plan. Those are delineated in the Proxy Statement from one year ago. Currently each board member who is re-elected receives 16,000 options to buy stock at the share price determined by fair market value as of March 15, 20xx (about 3 months before the Shareholders' meeting) of the year of the grant. Last year the market value amount was $36.00 per share, which equates to $18.00 post-split. At today's depressed stock price of $84.00 this equates to a capital gain of $1,000,000 for those same shares. Not bad work if you can get it. I guess I am a bit surprised by the personal wealth that can be amassed by a non-employee Board Member. Maybe I am just a tad jealous? If I had written the stock option plan I would have heavily weighted rewards for employee length-of-service, inventiveness & innovation, and individual achievement. The memorable events of the past several years have been the licensing negotiations with Intel, Samsung, Toshiba and the like, the great strides in process engineering (esp. multi-level technology), the accumulating portfolio of patents, the numerous OEM agreements, the development of the retail channel, and, foremost, the deal with Kodak to include the CompactFlash card in their first line of digital camera. I probably left out several others, but those are the best I can come up with on short notice (having only owned the stock for 2 years). Hats off to all the SNDK employees. They are the ones who deserve the recognition. Ausdauer (a.k.a. Mr. Sour Apples)