Poet Technologies Inc (POET)

[mackwheaton]

Just to clarify, this repricing vote is only about insiders’ options. Employee options repricing is already approved. So we are talking about executives, board of directors and, at most, a handful of key people. It could easily have been addressed by individual incentive bonuses. Given options’ performance history, wouldn’t you rather have the cash in hand, rather than the bet that these options will pay off?

The fear of an exodus looks like a distraction from the real reason. This repricing by far benefits those most responsible for the missteps that have devastated the share price, multiple failed offering attempts followed by completed financings that have resulted in massive dilution. And of course this compounds the dilution by increasing the options pool which allows further grants of millions of options to insiders and employees.

The only silver lining seems to be the urgency of wanting this done now rather than next year. It suggests that they anticipate some very significant news over the next 12 months or less, perhaps even a buyout.

From the outside it feels like a last grab to add cheap options to their personal coffers before the share price takes off and they become far more expensive. But, if they achieve remarkable progress by landing some huge customers, and the share price does explode, it’s a win-win scenario.

I believe the voting will approve the repricing, but if the recent spike continues and the share price should rise to approach double the repricing sought ($1.79 Can/$1.30 USD) prior to the AGSM next Friday, the TSX Venture Exchange may be hard pressed to justify approval of such a windfall.