Snackman,
In the past 18 years, how many times have they issued 1.2% of the company to someone in the form of options? How many times at .5%?
We don't know. All we know are those granted to the officers. Peter, SKS and Feeney... and Michael, as he is related. We don't know the other contracts.
I think there is something funny about the 1998 numbers for Peter and SKS, but the DEF 14A holds that 2.65% of outstanding shares were granted Peter; 2.82% to SKS and 1.33% granted Feeney (his first year - 450,000 at that time). In 2000 SKS was granted 1.05%. In 2001 and 2002 SKS was granted 0.50 and 0.48 percent respectively.
There were 11.3 million A&B shares outstanding (post split) in 1998 – 42.2 million in 2006.
Going back 18 years, as you suggest, means going back before the company was public. In 1992, 9.7% of the outstanding shares were issued as options – to whom, dunno. In 1993, 10.5% of the shares were issued as options. In 1998 it was 17%, the record.
Unclever
