I thought I'd double down and post what I posted on the ymb - my response to a post of yours, ryman.
Happy 4th to all!
But first, how about a paradigm shift to the statement that, "100% about sending a poor message to market". How about "the markets inherent inability to interpret the message correctly."
Thanks ryman.
It would help for investors to not confuse the past history of insiders buying and selling their own shares on the open market and what is going on here (and else) post SEC rule 10b5 along with the Sorbanes Oxley Act of 2003.
Investors hear about and read captions and posts about Executives selling their stock and the knee jerk reaction is 'oh no, something must be wrong.' To me, that's the unfortunate message that is still prevalent today.
In my book, what we are witnessing is not "insider selling" but a rather simple but structured act of the Executives exercising their (ISO's - incentive stock options) that they earned per the BOD (with shareholder approval) of the 2008 Equity Compensation Plan. This is how they can augment their base salary when achieving, meeting and/or exceeding the goals set by the BOD. If they don't meet the specific performance goals - then no options to be had to convert to shares.
Rearview ponders, "what is the motivator ot sell before events which presumably lead to significant upward valuation...." answer is the 10b5 that eliminates or provides an affirmative defense that the Executes where not selling (or buying) when in possession of MNPI's (material nonpublic information). Plus if and when they are awarded these options that are exercisable and they don't use them, what is there value to them? Zero. If I had options that I earned and were available for me to turn into cash and do something with, I would rather have in my pocket the capital than to have it sit there worthless. Plus I could potentially at some point in the future, reinvest it in whatever I choose, even to buy shares in the open market. But then, buying shares in the open market would be tough when you are a CEO (like Wotton) who is the rain maker and almost always in possession of MNPI's.
But, wtfdik
