Options gamesmanship?
Roopinder Tara and Ralph Grabowski have commented in their blogs about Autodesk doing an internal investigation on backdated stock options.
I'd not be surprised to see that there was some "gamesmanship" in the granting of those options. But, just because I'd not be surprised doesn't mean that I have any meaningful basis to think there is anything untoward going on.
Autodesk has, in the past, not been above playing close to the edge, if it meant making their quarterly numbers. (They earned a class action suit for securities fraud over some questionable practices a few years ago. Yes, they ultimately won -- but that doesn't mean all the allegations were factually wrong.) Have they learned from their experience? You'd hope so.
When I was reading Roopinder's article, I saw that he quoted one of Ralph's earlier articles, where he said that Carol Bartz (former Autodesk Chairman and CEO) netted about $230 million in stock options in a recent 12 month period. I was curious about this, so I went to Edgar (the SEC system for tracking corporate filings), and worked up totals for net proceeds from stock options for the last 2 years for Autodesk insiders, based on SEC form 4 filings:
| Insider | Title | Bought | Sold | Held | Net Proceeds | |||||||||
| BARTZ, CAROL A. | Chairman/CEO (former) | 4,663,804 | 4,607,648 | 1,027,222 | $139,202,549.96 | |||||||||
| BASS, CARL | Chairman/CEO (current) | 688,750 | 688,750 | 14,660 | $17,781,976.00 | |||||||||
| BECKER, JAN | Senior VP, HR | 331,976 | 331,976 | 7,490 | $10,097,201.91 | |||||||||
| STERLING, MARCIA K. | Gen. Counsel (former) | 215,338 | 198,686 | 37,912 | $5,096,593.31 | |||||||||
| BADO, GEORGE M. | Senior VP, Sales | 180,000 | 195,526 | 17,186 | $5,092,008.18 | |||||||||
| CASTINO, ALFRED | CFO | 166,000 | 128,834 | 40,291 | $3,831,654.00 | |||||||||
| SCHEID, STEVEN | Director | 108,987 | 105,000 | 29,893 | $3,605,961.00 | |||||||||
| BEVERIDGE, CRAWFORD | Director | 115,028 | 110,000 | 24,634 | $3,085,565.00 | |||||||||
| DAWSON, J. HALLAM | Director | 85,894 | 80,000 | 49,248 | $2,572,790.00 | |||||||||
| TAYLOR, MARY ALICE | Director | 125,202 | 120,000 | 51,178 | $2,544,569.00 | |||||||||
| HALVORSEN, KRIS | Director | 70,787 | 70,800 | 14,243 | $1,827,701.00 | |||||||||
| MILLER, ANDREW | Chief Accounting Officer | 77,500 | 67,995 | 12,492 | $1,586,836.54 | |||||||||
| BERTELSEN, MARK A. | Director | 43,987 | 41,100 | 9,999 | $1,243,799.00 | |||||||||
| WANGBERG, LARRY W. | Director | 43,987 | 40,000 | 31,719 | $1,228,321.00 |
There are a couple of intersting things about this list. First is that it clearly pays well to be in Autodesk top management -- unless, of course, you're involved in creating products. (None of the VPs in charge of creating the products that Autodesk's customers rely upon show up anywhere in the list of highly compensated individuals at Autodesk.) Next is that Carol's proceeds from stock options are not nearly as high as Roopinder and Ralph had thought. Maybe I've added wrong. Stranger things have happened.
Evan Yares
in The CAD Industry
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3 Comments
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Source: ADSK: We're Checking -
Reader Comments (3)
stock options! Overpaid isn't a strong enought word. I think
if I were still a stock holders the word rape would come to mind.
No "manager" is worth 80 Million a year for a company as small as
Autodesk. Take a look at reported net income over the last 2 years. Most of the actual profits of this company went to a few top managers not the stock holders. Not that this is much different from many other companies. It does not make it right however.
i believe CEO should be paid well, but there are lines to be drawn. now, she will always be remembered as one with money vs. one who helped make one of the best drafting programs out.