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Mo' Money
Friday, January 27 2006 @ 07:38 PM EST

SCO has decided to give some more money to its executives and employees in the way of salary increases, the stock options we already noticed, and some bonus possibilities as well. Hey, when you've got it, flaunt it. Here's the new 8K, which explains the plans.

There is a new sales compensation plan for 2006, so employees can earn quarterly commissions and "bookings bonuses", and the description of the Sales Plan is filed as an attachment. Unless I am misreading, I gather salesmen can get bonus points for selling MySQL. Non-sales employees can shoot for target bonuses, quarterly cash bonuses.

What drew my eye the most though is the part that tells who qualifies for these stock options:

On January 23, 2006, the Compensation Committee of the Board adopted a revised Form Notice of Grant of Stock Options (the “Form Grant Agreement”) for The SCO Group, Inc. 2002 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan (the “Incentive Plan”). The Form Grant Agreement is used to grant to employees, non-employee members of the Board or the board of directors of any parent or subsidiary of the Company and consultants a specified number of options that may be exercised at the exercise price specified therein, in accordance with the terms of the Incentive Plan. The Form Grant Agreement also provides for the issuance of either incentive stock options or non-qualified stock options and a specified vesting schedule and expiration date for the stock options. The Form Grant Agreement has substantially the same terms as the Form Notice of Grant of Stock Options previously used, except for changes that were deemed necessary to make the Form Grant Agreement more consistent with the Incentive Plan, including the provision governing how certain corporate transactions will impact the holders of outstanding stock options.

The link and the highlighting is added by me. And the agreement itself adds this:

The Board has adopted the Plan for the purpose of retaining the services of selected Employees, non-employee members of the Board or the board of directors of any Parent or Subsidiary and consultants who provide services to the Corporation (or any Parent or Subsidiary)....

AA. - Subsidiary shall mean any corporation (other than the Corporation) in an unbroken chain of corporations beginning with the Corporation, provided each corporation (other than the last corporation) in the unbroken chain owns, at the time of the determination, stock possessing fifty percent (50%) or more of the total combined voting power of all classes of stock in one of the other corporations in such chain.

I wonder who these favored consultants are. And who are SCO's "Parent" or "Subsidiary Corporations"? Hey, PIPE Fairy, is this how you intended your money to be spent?

[Update:I found a list of their subsidiaries, in an exhibit attached to their 10K, which they have also just filed.]

Not to worry. There is an ethics clause:

7.0 ETHICS

Any participant who manipulates or attempts to manipulate the Bonus Plan for personal gain at the expense of customers, other employees, or Company objectives will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

They've got new terms regarding what happens in the event of a "corporate transaction":

Special Termination of Option .

(a) In the event of a Corporate Transaction, this option shall terminate and cease to be outstanding, except to the extent assumed by the successor corporation or parent thereof in connection with such Corporate Transaction.

(b) If this option is assumed in connection with a Corporate Transaction, then this option shall be appropriately adjusted, immediately after such Corporate Transaction, to apply to the number and class of securities which would have been issuable to Optionee in consummation of such Corporate Transaction had the option been exercised immediately prior to such Corporate Transaction, and appropriate adjustments shall also be made to the Exercise Price, provided the aggregate Exercise Price shall remain the same.

(c) This Agreement shall not in any way affect the right of the Corporation to adjust, reclassify, reorganize or otherwise change its capital or business structure assets.

And here's a clause that gives the company certain rights to buy back the stock:

10 . REPURCHASE RIGHTS . ALL OPTION SHARES ACQUIRED UPON THE EXERCISE OF THIS OPTION SHALL BE SUBJECT TO CERTAIN RIGHTS OF THE CORPORATION AND ITS ASSIGNS TO REPURCHASE THOSE SHARES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS SPECIFIED IN THE PURCHASE AGREEMENT.

They also filed two S-8s, and the consent from KPMG, their ex-accounts, attached to this S-8, says this:

Consent of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

The Board of Directors of The SCO Group, Inc.:

We consent to the use of our report dated February 18, 2005, except as to Note 16, which is as of March 11, 2005, with respect to the consolidated balance sheet of The SCO Group, Inc. as of October 31, 2004, and the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), stockholders’ equity and cash flows for the years ended October 31, 2004 and 2003, and the related financial statement schedule, incorporated by reference in the registration statement.

/s/ KPMG LLP

Salt Lake City, Utah

January 27, 2006

Here's the second S-8. Here's the 8K's wording:

********************************

Form 8-K for SCO GROUP INC.

27-Jan-2006

Entry into Material Agreement, Financial Statements and Exhibits

Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.

Executive Compensation

On January 23, 2006, the board of directors (the "Board") of The SCO Group, Inc. (the "Company") approved the following actions relating to executive officers of the Company.

Increase in Annual Base Salary and Potential Bonus. The Board increased the annual base salary of Ryan E. Tibbitts, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the Company, from $145,000 to $160,000. The Board also increased the annual base salary of Sandeep Gupta, Chief Technology Officer of the Company, from $140,000 to $150,000. The Board also increased the target bonus to which Mr. Gupta may be entitled from 20 percent of his annual base salary to 40 percent of his annual base salary. The salary increases of Mr. Tibbitts and Mr. Gupta and the increase in potential bonus for Mr. Gupta are all effective as of November 1, 2005.

Stock Option Grants. The Board approved stock options to purchase shares of the Company's common stock pursuant to the 2004 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan to the executive officers named below. Each of the stock options, as provided in the Executive Officer Stock Option Agreements, dated as of January 23, 2006, between each executive officer and the Company, has an exercise price equal to the fair market value on the date of the grant, and will expire ten years from the date of grant. The first 25 percent of the option shares vest upon the first anniversary of the date of grant and the remaining option shares vest over the following three years on a monthly basis so long as the executive officers remain in service with the Company. However, option vesting will accelerate upon a change in control of the Company and upon the declaration by the Board of the payment of a certain dividend to the common stockholders of the Company.


                        Number of Shares
                    Issuable Upon Exercise of
Executive Officer     Granted Stock Options
Darl C. McBride                        80,000
Sandeep Gupta                          80,000
Bert B. Young                          70,000
Ryan E. Tibbitts                       50,000
Chris Sontag                           50,000
Jeff Hunsaker                          40,000
Tim Negris                             30,000


The SCO Group America Compensation Plan for Fiscal Year 2006. The Board approved The SCO Group America Sales Compensation Plan for fiscal year 2006 (the "Sales Plan"), effective as of November 1, 2005. Pursuant to the Sales Plan, participants will have the opportunity to earn quarterly commissions.

Each participant in the Sales Plan will be assigned a quarterly quota based upon a single revenue number. In addition, each participant will have the opportunity to earn quarterly accelerators for additional revenue achieved in excess of their quarterly quota. Quarterly accelerators range from a minimum of 3% to a maximum of 10%.

In addition to the attainment of quarterly accelerators, participants are eligible to receive a bookings bonus of $2,000 - $5,000 for meeting specified conditions in the Sales Plan relating to UNIX products, and a 10% bookings bonus for Me INC subscription sales. In addition to the bookings bonuses, participants are eligible to receive a $5,000 bonus for new UNIX accounts meeting certain criteria. Quarterly quota targets are established by the Senior Vice President of the UNIX Division and the CFO.

This description of the Sales Plan is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, The SCO Group America Sales Compensation Plan for fiscal year 2006 attached to this Current Report on Form 8-K as Exhibit 99.1.

The SCO Group Employee Incentive Bonus Program for Fiscal Year 2006. The Board adopted The SCO Group Employee Incentive Bonus Program for fiscal year 2006 (the "Bonus Program"), effective as of November 1, 2005 for all non-sales employees. Pursuant to the Bonus Program, eligible employees, including certain of the executive officers identified in the table below, may earn quarterly cash bonuses.

The target bonus for each eligible employee will be comprised of three components: (1) 40% related to revenue, (2) 40% related to operating performance, and (3) 20% related to personal objectives. A bonus under the Bonus Program may be paid for any quarter of fiscal year 2006 if at least one or more of the above components are attained. Personal objectives for Mr. McBride, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, are established by the Compensation Committee, and personal objectives for the other executive officers are established by Mr. McBride.

This description of the Bonus Program is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, The SCO Group Employee Incentive Bonus Program for fiscal year 2006 attached to this Current Report on Form 8-K as Exhibit 99.2.

Potential Bonuses: The potential bonus amounts that may be earned by all executive officers for the 2006 fiscal year under the Bonus Program and the Sales Plan, if the Company attains revenue and operating performance targets at 150 percent and the executive officers satisfy all other personal objectives, are as follows:

                                              Potential Annual
                                                    Bonus
                                               for Fiscal Year
                                                2006 at 150%
Name                                             attainment

Darl C. McBride
President and Chief Executive Officer         $         278,250
Bert B. Young
Chief Financial Officer                       $         102,000
Chris Sontag
Senior Vice President, Business Development   $          96,000
Jeff Hunsaker
Senior Vice President, UNIX Division          $          96,000
Tim Negris
Senior Vice President, Marketing              $          84,000
Sandeep Gupta
Chief Technology Officer                      $          90,000
Ryan E. Tibbitts
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary       $          96,000

TOTAL                                         $         842,250

Change in Control Agreements

The Company also entered into, with Mr. Negris and Mr. Gupta, the Company's standard form of change in control agreement (the "Agreement"), effective as of January 23, 2006. Pursuant to the terms of each Agreement, Mr. Negris and Mr. Gupta agree that they will not voluntarily leave the employ of the Company in the event any individual, corporation, partnership, company or other entity takes certain steps to effect a Change in Control (as defined in the Agreement) of the Company, until the attempt to effect a Change in Control has terminated, or until a Change in Control occurs.

If Mr. Negris or Mr. Gupta is still employed by the Company when a Change in Control occurs, any stock, stock option or restricted stock granted to Mr. Negris or Mr. Gupta, as applicable, by the Company that would have become vested upon continued employment by Mr. Negris or Mr. Gupta shall immediately vest in full and become exercisable notwithstanding any provision to the contrary of such grant and shall remain exercisable until it expires or terminates in accordance with its terms.

Mr. Negris and Mr. Gupta shall each be solely responsible for any taxes that arise or become due pursuant to the acceleration of vesting that occurs pursuant to the Agreement.

The foregoing summary of the Change in Control Agreements is subject to, and qualified in its entirety by, the form of Change in Control Agreement, which was previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 16, 2004, as Exhibit 99.1 to the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K.

Form Notice of Grant of Stock Options for the 2002 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan

On January 23, 2006, the Compensation Committee of the Board adopted a revised Form Notice of Grant of Stock Options (the "Form Grant Agreement") for The SCO Group, Inc. 2002 Omnibus Stock Incentive Plan (the "Incentive Plan"). The Form Grant Agreement is used to grant to employees, non-employee members of the Board or the board of directors of any parent or subsidiary of the Company and consultants a specified number of options that may be exercised at the exercise price specified therein, in accordance with the terms of the Incentive Plan. The Form Grant Agreement also provides for the issuance of either incentive stock options or non-qualified stock options and a specified vesting schedule and expiration date for the stock options. The Form Grant Agreement has substantially the same terms as the Form Notice of Grant of Stock Options previously used, except for changes that were deemed necessary to make the Form Grant Agreement more consistent with the Incentive Plan, including the provision governing how certain corporate transactions will impact the holders of outstanding stock options.

The terms and conditions of the revised Form Grant Agreement filed as Exhibit 99.3 to this Form 8-K are hereby incorporated by reference herein and replace the prior Form of Notice of Grant of Stock Options for the Incentive Plan filed as Exhibit 10.13 to the Company's Form 10-K, filed on April 1, 2005.


  


Mo' Money | 118 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
Corrections here
Authored by: josmith42 on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 07:43 PM EST
Nope, no cute typoss here...

---
This comment was typed using the Dvorak keyboard layout. :-)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off topic stuff here
Authored by: josmith42 on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 07:45 PM EST
<a href="http://www.example.com">This is how you make a link.
Don't forget the HTML formatted mode.</a>

---
This comment was typed using the Dvorak keyboard layout. :-)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Stock Option Grants....will expire ten years from the date of grant.
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 08:04 PM EST

Stock Option Grants. The Board approved stock options to purchase shares of the Company's common stock pursuant to the 2004 Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan to the executive officers named below. Each of the stock options, as provided in the Executive Officer Stock Option Agreements, dated as of January 23, 2006, between each executive officer and the Company, has an exercise price equal to the fair market value on the date of the grant, and will expire ten years from the date of grant.

This sick parrot will be expired long before then :)

Brian S.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Bonus Plans
Authored by: The Mad Hatter r on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 08:45 PM EST

Bonus plans are nothing unusual. The question in this case is will the company
survive long enough to pay out a bonus? I'd really love to have access to their
HR records to check on staff turn-over. Staff aren't stupid. They can see which
way the wind is blowing, and if the company is in trouble will start planning
their exit strategies.

Unless Darl is employing Jedi mind tricks to cloud their vision...


---
Wayne

http://urbanterrorist.blogspot.com/

[ Reply to This | # ]

  • Bonus Plans - Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 29 2006 @ 06:58 AM EST
Mo' Money
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 09:12 PM EST
Can Novell request an injunction to stop any further spending until they have
been paid the royalties?
How far back can they go in a bankrupcy to recover money?
Could that be another reason why they are delaying?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Change in Control Agreements - Mr. Negris and Mr. Gupta
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 09:13 PM EST

The Company also entered into, with Mr. Negris and Mr. Gupta, the Company's standard form of change in control agreement (the "Agreement"), effective as of January 23, 2006. Pursuant to the terms of each Agreement, Mr. Negris and Mr. Gupta agree that they will not voluntarily leave the employ of the Company in the event any individual, corporation, partnership, company or other entity takes certain steps to effect a Change in Control (as defined in the Agreement) of the Company, until the attempt to effect a Change in Control has terminated, or until a Change in Control occurs.

If Mr. Negris or Mr. Gupta is still employed by the Company when a Change in Control occurs, any stock, stock option or restricted stock granted to Mr. Negris or Mr. Gupta, as applicable, by the Company that would have become vested upon continued employment by Mr. Negris or Mr. Gupta shall immediately vest in full and become exercisable notwithstanding any provision to the contrary of such grant and shall remain exercisable until it expires or terminates in accordance with its terms.

Mr. Negris and Mr. Gupta shall each be solely responsible for any taxes that arise or become due pursuant to the acceleration of vesting that occurs pursuant to the Agreement.

My bold.

Are they being offered enough to hang around a bit longer or should Darl give them a bigger pay rise before he sells the company to ?????????

Brian S.

[ Reply to This | # ]

The End is Near
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 09:46 PM EST
The end is near.

So its only right for -The Gang- to give the money to each other, while there
is still something left in the till.

[ Reply to This | # ]

A comment I've made here before ...
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 09:48 PM EST
At some point in the very near future IBM get to re-file their motions for
summary judgement.

A short while after that, SCO's whole setup (corporate and litigation) goes down
the pan at an ever accelerating rate.

Between those two times I hope someone's watching the airports for ex-SCO execs
carrying lots of pictures of dead presidents onto planes - to countries with no
extradition treaties with the US.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mo' Money
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 10:08 PM EST
<sarcasm>
I can't think of a more deserving group of guys.
</sarcasm>

[ Reply to This | # ]

Let the pillaging begin!
Authored by: Anonymous on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 10:34 PM EST

I'd sure hate to be in a lowly position at SCO such as a coder or other technical job. Seems only the C-level folks are going to really get anything out of this. The bonuses for sales people sounds like a good idea but I'd bet that most of them don't see a dime's worth of bonus. (It's gotta be tough to make a sales pitch when the potential customers are hanging up on you or suddenly in an important meeting as soon as you say S-C-... ) Most of today's revelation is (IMHO) just trying to make the previous stock option bonanza look less like the executive ripoff that it was. "But the average employees are getting incentives" Yah, right.

I sure hope Darl's proud of this and I hope he makes his pile at this job because I can't see another board of directors giving you another job like it. If anyone does give him another job, I sure as heck hope it's not another tech company. Personally, I'd like to him selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door. (And, no, I don't think that's too cruel.)

[ Reply to This | # ]

If you have to bribe your top people to stay,
Authored by: kawabago on Friday, January 27 2006 @ 11:16 PM EST
how good can your case be?

---
TTFN

[ Reply to This | # ]

OTOH...
Authored by: kwatson on Saturday, January 28 2006 @ 01:44 AM EST
IANAL, nor a fiduciary wizard, but my first impression is that the investors who
provided SCOx's recent cash infusions have here memorialized a means to direct
the future course of the game that is SCOx, regardless of any failure/omission
of current management to keep the show going...

Y/n/?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Take Over in the Making
Authored by: Anonymous on Saturday, January 28 2006 @ 06:57 AM EST
Tied to the 10 million dollar investment it has all the signs of a take over as
soon as the summary judgements are done finishing off SCO.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Probably a typo in the ethics clause...
Authored by: Anonymous on Sunday, January 29 2006 @ 12:28 AM EST
"Any participant who manipulates or attempts to manipulate the Bonus Plan
for personal gain at the expense of customers, other employees, or Company
objectives will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, up to and
including..."

And I think what they meant to put at that point was "additional
bonuses."

It's the only way I can make sense of it.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Interesting "ethics"
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, January 30 2006 @ 05:23 AM EST
It seems they don't consider it unethical to manipulate the stock option plan
for personaly gain at the expense of existing stockholders. Otherwise why would
stockholders not be mentioned in the ethics clause?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Mo' Money
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, January 30 2006 @ 10:48 PM EST
Looks pretty squarely like they are setting up for acquisition by some other
company. Can anyone else see how Darl & co. will ever get their options? I
mean there has to be someone willing to buy the stock for more than
$3.70whatever... that doesn't seem like an increasing chance as time goes on in
this and the Novell case.

[ Reply to This | # ]

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