SiliconBeat

NetApp asked its shareholders to approve a proposal to allow a “one-time option exchange” for its employees at a special meeting held April 21. The measure was approved, according to a filing May 5 that detailed the terms of the exchange program. What wasn’t known until today was just how close the company came to losing that vote.

In its annual 10-K filing with the SEC Wednesday, the Sunnyvale supplier of data storage systems and services revealed the vote totals. The number of shares voted in favor Read the rest of this entry »

Marvell Technology, the Bermuda-based chip company that operates out of Santa Clara, said today that it has agreed to resolve a shareholder class action lawsuit filed in August 2007 related to the way the company granted stock options in the past.

The company will pay $72 million and has decided Read the rest of this entry »

Atmel CEO Steve Laub told employees of the San Jose chip maker that its board has agreed to ask shareholders to approve a “one-time” stock option exchange program at its annual meeting scheduled for May 20 that would commence sometime within 12 months following the vote.

“(L)ike many other companies in the technology industry, (Atmel) has recently experienced Read the rest of this entry »

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 Read the rest of this entry »

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit, the National Inventors Hall of Fame will honor 16 people who helped pioneer computer-chip technology during a ceremony Saturday, May 2 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

Andy Grove, who formerly served as Santa Clara chip-maker Intel’s chief executive and chairman, will be given a lifetime achievement award. In addition, 15 other chip innovators will be recognized for their contributions to the industry.

But you wouldn’t want us to spoil the surprise by telling you who they all are and what they did, would you? Of course not. So if you’re curious, go here.

Intel grabbed headlines today announcing its first-ever option exchange program that helped balance its implementation of an across-the-board salary freeze. But joining Intel today in announcing a plan to reprice employee stock option plan was NetApp, the Sunnyvale provider of network storage appliances, which is asking its shareholders to vote on a plan to reprice options with exercise prices of $22 or higher.

In its argument in favor of the measure, NetApp’s board said that Read the rest of this entry »

Starbucks, which wants to enact a “one-time stock option exchange” in light of its shares losing about three-quarters of their value over the last couple of years, decided to delete one sentence from its 2005 stock plan following “discussions with (shareholder advisor) RiskMetrics Group in connection with its review” of the shareholder approval it is seeking at the coffee retailer’s annual meeting next month.

You can read the offending sentence for yourself, but the gist is, Read the rest of this entry »

Marvell Technology, which offered employees the chance to exchange their underwater stock options in return for shares of restriced stock, reported Tuesday that 3,389 eligible employees, or about two-thirds of its workforce, took the company up on the offer, turning over options covering an aggregate of 31.1 million shares.

In exchange, the group received Read the rest of this entry »

Google offered its employees the chance to exchange their underwater options (the company estimated that 85 percent of its employees hold at least some options where the current strike price is higher than where its shares are now trading, rendering them worthless at the moment), according to Read the rest of this entry »

Two more Silicon Valley companies joined the ranks of those offering to exchange some of their employees underwater options with options repriced at more current market rates. On Friday, Smart Modular, the Fremont maker of electronic subsystems, filed its preliminary proxy, which included a proposal to reprice options for its employees — those that are left after the company finishes laying off the 19 percent of its workforce that it said it would back in September.

Under Smart Modular’s proposal, certain employees would be permitted to exchange options with an exercise price higher than Read the rest of this entry »