SiliconBeat

On Friday, Sigma Designs filed a settlement it has reached of litigation filed against it over claims of stock option backdating, which the company completely denies. Then why is it settling?

“Defendants are entering into this Stipulation solely because the proposed settlement would eliminate the burden and expense of further litigation, and without admitting any wrongdoing or liability whatsoever.”

The agreement, which is subject to court approval, includes the cancellation of an option granted to Sigma’s chief executive in January for Read the rest of this entry »

Sigma Designs wasted no time in buying back most of the 5 million shares its board had authorized for repurchase earlier this year, according to its annual 10-K filing Wednesday. It spent $80.6 million buying 3.8 million shares at an average price of $21 per share.

The board of the Milipitas chip maker initially OK’d repurchasing 2 million shares on Feb. 27 when its shares were trading around $32, down 18 percent from where they had ended 2007. The board upped that amount by 3 million more shares on March 18. Sigma shares were battered March 13 after the company said it earned 80 cents per share in its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter, a penny short of Wall Street expectations. They fell $4.16, or 16 percent, to $21.10 on volume that was five times its average for the year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps good things do come to those who wait.  Take Kit Tsui, vice president of planning and administration at Milpitas-based Sigma Designs, who’s worked there since 1982.  Before selling 30,000 shares in July, Tsui had not sold any company shares since at least 1998.

On Sept. 4 Tsui exercised options to buy 52,249 Sigma shares for $194,065, paying an
average of $3.71 each, and sold 27,250 of them for $1,181,193, or an average of $43.35 each, leaving her with $987,128Š and 24,999 shares to sell later.

Perhaps good things also do come to those who wait. Take Kit Tsui, vice
president of planning and administration at Milpitas-based Sigma Designs, who’s worked there since 1982. Before selling 30,000 shares in July, Tsui had not sold any company shares since at least 1998.

On Sept. 4 Tsui exercised options to buy 52,249 Sigma shares for $194,065, paying an
average of $3.71 each, and sold 27,250 of them for $1,181,193, or an average of $43.35 each, leaving her with $987,128Š and 24,999 shares to sell later.

Times are good at Sigma Designs, which specializes in chip systems used in video and audio devices. Sales in fiscal year 2007 hit $91.2 million, up 174 percent from the year before and a record. (The previous record of $76.2 million was set in 1990.) Net profit rose to $6.2 million compared with a $1.6 million loss the year before.

On Aug. 29, the company reported that sales for the first two quarters of fiscal 2008 were $78.6 million, up 125 percent from the same period the year before, while profit hit $14 million for the period, compared with a loss of $1.1 million for the half year before. The results sent Sigma’s shares up 11 percent the next day to $42.70.

So far this calendar year, insiders have have sold 772,000 shares of Sigma worth about $23.6 million at an average price of $30.54. They have exercised options to buy 831,000 shares, or about a quarter of the 3.2 million shares that were exercisable by all employees at the end of fiscal 2007, at an average strike price of $3.53.

Sigma’s shares ended today at at an all-time closing high of $44.02.