Details of Dial Global options

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You may have been wondering about the strike price for the stock options included in the employment deals for Dial Global’s three Co-CEOs. More details have now been filed with the SEC.


The 1,637,125 of stock options each for Spencer Brown, David Landau and Kenneth Williams are exercisable at $3.27. That was the average of the Nasdaq opening and closing prices on Tuesday (12/20), the day the options were granted.

Dial Global’s stock closed Thursday (12/22) at $3.25, so the options are barely out of the money.

As you would expect, the options vest over time. For each of the Co-CEOs 2.5% vested immediately, with 87.5% vesting in monthly installments from December 21, 2011 through October 21, 2014. The remaining 10% will become vested in monthly installments of 0.833% from November 21, 2014 through October 21, 2015. All of the options expire on December 20, 2021 – ten years from the date of grant.

RBR-TVBR observation: These are real, traditional stock options, not the restricted shares which have become popular at some companies in recent years. With options the executives have to ensure that the public stock price goes up. Otherwise their options are worthless. Options clearly do more to align management’s interests with stockholders than do restricted shares.