Keynote CEO returns more (high-priced) options
Umang Gupta, the chief executive of Keynote Systems, had offered to give back an option grant good for 400,000 shares as an incentive to convince shareholders to approve a proposal to extend the company’s 1999 stock incentive plan by two years, gave back even more, according to an SEC filing today.
The measure had failed to attract enough “yes” votes at the company’s annual meeting last month after shareholder advisor RiskMetrics objected to the plan.
A final tallying of the votes in the matter was postponed by a week, during which time Gupta made his offer to give back the option grant. When the measure finally gained enough votes to win and on March 6, Gupta returned the option grant covering 400,000 shares as promised. (The strike price on the grant, awarded in November 2007, was $14.99, a price that Keynote’s stock has not seen since.)
According to today’s filing, Gupta also decided to give back another large grant, this one good for 300,000 shares originally issued in January 2000, weeks before the tech bubble in stocks peaked. The sacrifice by Gupta, though, is mostly symbolic at this point, as the strike price on that grant was $70 a share.
Keynote’s stock closed today at 38 cents $8.41.
2 comments
Joshua
Keynote did not close at 0.38. It closed at $8.41 I think.
Mar 18, 2009
Jack Davis
You’re absolutely right Joshua, my huge mistake. Must have mis-typed the ticker symbol and entered that price mindlessly. Thanks for the edit.
Mar 18, 2009