Every month, Compliance Week publishes a list of the largest stock option grants and restricted stock awards during the previous period, in this case May 2004. The data and analysis are provided by compensation research firm Equilar, Inc.

THE DATA

Latest Data

Download Equity Awards Analysis, May 2004

Prior Months' Data

Download Equity Awards Analysis, April 2004

Download Equity Awards Analysis, March 2004

Download The Equity Awards Analysis, February 2004

Download The Equity Awards Analysis, January 2004

Download The Equity Awards Analysis, December 2003

Prior Equity Analysis: November 2003

Prior Equity Analysis: October 2003

Data provided by Equilar, Inc., an independent provider of executive and board compensation analysis.

The company can be reached via email or at (650) 286-4512.

A review of May’s Form 4 filings shows that the top equity awards were primarily driven by events, including executives taking on increased responsibilities, and companies spinning-off operations.

The complete spreadsheet is available for download at right, but one grant worth noting was an award of 550,000 options to Viacom President and COO Mel Karmazin on May 19. News of Karmazin’s resignation hit the wires less than two weeks later, on June 1, 2004.

Equilar predicted that the grant “probably won’t bear fruit since in most instances the executive is required to exercise their options within 30-90 days after their termination,” and indeed Karmazin’s severance agreement specifically noted those options “shall not vest and shall be cancelled.”

The fact that the grant was made two weeks prior to Karmazin’s departure may provide an indication of how surprised the company was by his resignation.

Other awards driven by events include:

Michael Fister, who appears on both Top 10 lists, was named President and CEO of Cadence Design Systems on May 12. Fister was most recently senior vice president at Intel Corporation and general manager of the Enterprise Platforms Group. According to Equilar, “It can be presumed that a portion of the awards he received would represent ‘make whole’ payments for some of the unvested options he is giving up by departing Intel.” His employment agreement will likely appear as an exhibit to Cadence Design’s next 10Q filing.

John Lawrie, was named CEO of Siebel on May 4. Lawrie was most recently senior vice president and a group executive at IBM. He received 2,000,000 options and 350,000 restricted stock units on May 5, 2004.

Simon Bax was named Pixar's new executive vice president and chief financial officer in May. He received a grant of 400,000 options on May 3, 2004.

In May, Sirius Satellite Radio appointed Scott Greenstein and James Meyer as presidents of separate units. They received restricted stock units of 1,575,000 and 1,200,000, respectively, on May 5. In addition, they each received stock option awards of 2,800,00 on the same date.

Michael Fraizer is Chairman, President and CEO of Genworth Financial, the insurance group spunoff from General Electric in late May. Fraizer received a grant of 1,900,000 stock-settled SARs on May 25, 2004, the date of the Genworth Financial IPO. “SARs” are stock appreciation rights, which generally provide the executive the right to receive a payment equal to the appreciation in the company’s stock for a predetermined number of shares over a specified period of time.

Year Over Year

Equilar also compared recent option grants to those received in the same month last year for comparison purposes. Among those that received substantial awards in May of 2004 and 2003 were 3M Chairman and CEO James McNerny, and Viacom Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone.

The complete data from May, as well as prior months’ data, are available from the box above, right.