SiliconBeat

Somewhat lost among the news about Google’s first sales decline ever in its 2009 first quarter and the decision of the company’s first salesman, Omid Kordestani to step down — he’ll continue on as an advisor to the company’s chief executive and co-founders — was news of the filing of an amendment to the company’s innovative “Transferable Stock Option” program.

The program, first unveiled in April 2007, was designed to let workers auction off their options to outside investors. The move came at a time when employees were sitting on 1.3 million underwater options that were priced months before at a then all-time high of $510.

Since then, of course, Google shares have climbed as high as $747 during the fourth quarter of 2007, and the company has issued options with strike prices as high as $732.94. With their company’s shares currently trading below $400, Googlers must continue to be thankful to have the TSO program available to them as a way to squeeze some immediate value out of options they would otherwise be unable to profit from.

In fact, there are evidently members of the executive management group who would now like the chance to avail themselves of the program, which they were excluded from when the program when it was first announced. On Wednesday, Google filed an amendment to the TSO program “to allow executive officer participation” in it, according to its regulatory filing made Thursday that included news of its financial results.

Since its inception through the end of last year, Googlers have sold more than 1.5 million options using the plan for a combined $458.2 million, for which the buyers paid about a 12 percent premium to the exercise price of the options..