defa14a
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
SCHEDULE 14A
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Filed by the Registrant ý |
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Filed by a Party other than the Registrant
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Check the appropriate box: |
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o Preliminary Proxy Statement |
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Confidential, for Use of the Commission Only (as permitted by
Rule 14a-6(e)(2)) |
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o Definitive Proxy Statement |
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ý Definitive Additional Materials |
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Soliciting Material Pursuant to §240.14a-12 |
BEARINGPOINT, INC.
(Name
of Registrant as Specified In Its Charter)
(Name
of Person(s) Filing Proxy Statement, if other than the
Registrant)
Payment of Filing Fee (Check the appropriate box):
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ý No fee required. |
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Fee computed on table below per Exchange Act Rules 14a-6(i)(1) and
0-11. |
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1) Title of each class of securities to which transaction applies: |
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2) Aggregate number of securities to which transaction applies: |
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3) Per unit price or other underlying value of transaction computed
pursuant to Exchange Act Rule 0-11 (set forth the amount on which the
filing fee is calculated and state how it was determined): |
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4) Proposed maximum aggregate value of transaction: |
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o Fee paid previously with preliminary materials. |
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o Check box if any part of the fee is offset as provided by Exchange Act
Rule 0-11(a)(2) and identify the filing for which the offsetting fee
was paid previously. Identify the previous filing by registration
statement number, or the Form or Schedule and the date of its filing. |
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1) Amount Previously Paid: |
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2) Form, Schedule or Registration Statement No.: |
The Talking Points below will be utilized by BearingPoint, Inc. (the Company) and its proxy
solicitor, Innisfree M&A Incorporated, in connection with communications or discussions with the
Companys stockholders regarding Proposal No. 2 in the Companys Proxy Statement for its 2006
Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
TALKING POINTS
Proxy Statement
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On Friday, November 24, BearingPoint, Inc. (the Company) filed a proxy statement relating to its 2006 Annual Meeting
of Stockholders, to be held on December 14, 2006. |
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Our proxy materials were mailed to stockholders beginning on November 27, 2006. |
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As outlined in the proxy statement, the Board of Directors of the Company (the Board) has proposed three matters for
stockholder consideration: |
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The election of two classes of directors; |
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The approval of the Companys Amended and Restated 2000 Long-Term Incentive Plan,
which includes a 25 million share increase in the number of shares of common stock
authorized for issuance under the plan; and |
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The ratification of the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our independent
registered public accounting firm for 2006. |
Form 10-K Filing
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As you probably are aware, the Company also filed its Form 10-K
for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005 (the 2005 Form 10-K)
on November 22, 2006 an important step for the Company in
becoming current in its filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission (the SEC). |
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The filing of the 2005 Form 10-K was the product of a tremendous
effort on the part of our management team and the Board. |
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On November 22, 2006, we also provided, by press release, certain
unaudited business metrics for our third quarter of 2006. We
believe these metrics reflect that our core business continues to
perform well. |
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The previously reported litigation brought by, and settlement
with, certain of our debenture holders does not appear to have
markedly impacted our business, and, as a result of the
settlement, none of our outstanding debentures was reclassified as
current debt in our 2005 audited financial statements. |
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We are now turning our focus towards the completion and filing of
our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for 2005 and 2006. |
Proposal regarding Amendments to the BearingPoint Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP)
Summary of Proposed Amendments:
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25 million share increase in the number of shares authorized for equity awards made under
the LTIP. |
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Elimination of an evergreen formula used to determine the number
of shares available under the LTIP by reference to a certain
percentage of our total shares outstanding. |
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Revisions that will allow awards made to our most senior
executives under the LTIP to qualify as performance-based
compensation under Section 162 (m) of the Internal Revenue Code
(the Code). |
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Revisions to comply with Section 409A of the Code that will
minimize the risk of excise taxes being levied on plan
participants in connection with changes to the vesting, settlement
or delivery of shares under the awards. |
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Certain other changes and clarifications. |
Basis
for Recommendation of Proposed Increase in Number of Shares
Authorized Under LTIP
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As a professional services firm, we must retain and incent our
best performers. Retention of our key employees is of utmost
importance, particularly given the challenges the Company
continues to face, including aggressive attempts by our
competitors to hire our people and our inability to fully
implement important changes in our compensation structure as a
result of not being current with our SEC filings. |
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While we have maintained parity with our major competitors on base cash
compensation for our employees, current market data indicate that we continue to
lag behind our competitors in the categories of cash incentive and
long-term, equity incentive compensation. |
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Additionally, our outstanding stock options awards, the majority of which
were granted before 2005, have limited retentive value since they were granted with
exercise prices that are still near or above our common stocks current fair market
value. Furthermore, these option awards were issued broadly, resulting in a low
average number of options per employee. |
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By comparison, to date, our use of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) for
retention purposes has been well received by our managing directors. |
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In March 2005, the Compensation Committee of our Board
authorized the issuance of up to $165 million in RSUs under the LTIP to
current managing directors and other key employees. These awards were granted
over the course of our 2005 and 2006 fiscal years. |
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We believe these RSU awards aided in reducing our voluntary
attrition rate for our managing director group from 17% (annualized) in the
first quarter of fiscal 2005 to less than half that level in the third quarter
of fiscal 2006. |
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As of September 30, 2006, approximately 20 million of the 21
million RSUs outstanding are held by our current employees. Nearly 10 million
of these RSUs have vested. |
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Our voluntary attrition rate is now relatively stable but higher than our targeted level. We believe
that to retain our highest-performing managing directors and senior managers, we must continue to
offer them a competitive-level of total rewards. |
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We continue to have competing uses for our cash resources over the near term. |
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Relative to our competitors, our most senior employees continue to have a low
level of equity ownership in the Company. |
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We continue to believe that equity-based awards will better align the
interest of our highest performers with those of our other stockholders and investors. |
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We expect that if the proposed 25 million share increase for our
LTIP is approved at the 2006 Annual Meeting, we will have
sufficient capacity under our LTIP to offer our employees a
compelling-level of equity awards through 2009. |
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If the proposed LTIP share increase is approved, we will proceed
to work with our Compensation Committee (which serves as
administrator of the LTIP) to complete the development of a new
equity-based retention strategy. Subject to the approval of the
Compensation Committee, management expects to propose a strategy
that would involve the following: |
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The majority of grants will be made to senior-level employees, including
managing directors and high-performing senior managers. |
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We would grant the majority of the awards in 2007. |
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All of the grants made under the new proposed equity-based
retention strategy would vest over a multiple year period and be
subject to performance-based vesting. |
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The amount and timing of related GAAP expense will take into account, among
other factors, vesting and other plan terms, as well as actual performance. |
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We are also working to develop arrangements for the orderly
settlement and sale of the shares underlying our previously
granted 2005 retention bonus RSUs. As we have not yet become
current in our SEC filings, we have been unable to settle and,
more importantly, our employees have been unable to sell, any of
the shares that have vested under our 2005 retention bonus RSU
awards. We will seek to provide orderly opportunities for
settlement and sale of these shares shortly after we become
current in our SEC filings. Shares received upon the settlement
of most of our 2005 RSU grants are subject to transfer
restrictions and can only be sold through Company-approved
transactions. We are working to develop arrangements with external
brokers that will permit our managing directors to make their own
decisions about liquidating their shares, but in an orderly fashion
that should not materially impact our stock price. |
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We do not expect the vesting, settlement and ultimate sale of the
2005 and 2007 retention bonus RSUs to cause any significant
volatility in our stock price, given the extended period of
vesting of the 2007 retention bonus RSUs and the application of
well-tested procedures for permitting the liquidation of the 2005
retention bonus RSUs. |
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We will consider whether or not to utilize the existing $64
million we have available for share buybacks and/or seek
additional authorization from our Board for this purpose after we
become current in our SEC filings. |
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Based on all of these considerations, we hope you understand and
appreciate how essential it is for the Company to increase the
number of shares authorized under our LTIP, and we hope that you
support the Companys efforts by considering a vote in favor of
the proposed LTIP amendments at our 2006 Annual Meeting of
Stockholders to be held on December 14th, 2006. |
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
These additional proxy solicitation materials contain forward-looking statements. Words such
as may, will, could, would, should, anticipate, expects, intends, plans,
believes and similar words are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These
statements are only predictions and as such are not guarantees of future performance and involve
risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements are
based upon assumptions that as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Actual outcomes
and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking
statements. As a result, these statements speak only as of the date of these additional proxy
solicitation materials, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Actual results may differ from the forward-looking statements for many reasons, including, without
limitation, the following:
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we may be unable to retain key employees utilizing our retention
strategy of granting awards under the LTIP or our current retention
strategy may not meet market demands in a manner sufficient to retain
certain key employees; |
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the market price of shares of our common stock underlying award grants
may fluctuate in a manner that increases or decreases the value of
awards granted under the LTIP; |
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the attrition and forfeiture assumptions the we have used in
determining the number of shares of common stock that we likely will
need under the LTIP to implement our retention strategy may be
inaccurate; and |
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unforeseen critical needs may impact our ability to implement, or our
need to modify, our retention strategy. |
Please refer to the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31,
2005, and other reports filed with the SEC and available at http://www.sec.gov/ for additional
information regarding risk factors.
The Questions & Answers below will be utilized by BearingPoint, Inc. (the Company) and its
proxy solicitor, Innisfree M&A Incorporated, in response to potential questions that may be raised
by the Companys stockholders in connection with certain matters
contained in the Companys Proxy Statement
for its 2006 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Election of Directors
1. Why are two classes of directors being nominated for election?
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Our directors generally serve for a term of three years and until their
respective successors have been duly elected and qualified. |
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The term of our Class II directors was originally set to expire at our 2005
annual meeting of stockholders; however, we did not hold an annual meeting of
stockholders in 2005. |
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The term of our Class III directors will expire at the 2006 Annual Meeting of
stockholders. |
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We are proposing the election of both Class II and III directors. Upon
election, our Class II directors will serve a term expiring in 2008 and our Class
III directors will serve a term expiring in 2009. |
Amendments to Long-Term Incentive Plan (LTIP)
1. Would the 25 million additional shares under the LTIP be used for a new award program
or for previously announced initiatives?
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The 25 million shares would be used to support awards under a new,
performance-based equity plan that management will propose for approval by the
Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors (the Compensation Committee). |
2. Which employees would receive awards under this new award program?
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We expect the majority of future equity awards to be made within our managing
directors and highest-performing senior manager groups. These two groups comprise
approximately 1,000 employees. |
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We intend to focus use of the awards for maximum retentive benefit. |
3. How will this award program fit into the Companys strategic plan to build
shareholder value?
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As a professional services firm, we must retain and incent our highest
performers to increase shareholder value. |
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We believe that to retain our highest-performing employees, we must continue to
offer employees, on a sustained basis, a competitive-level of total rewards. |
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Based on industry benchmarking and feedback gathered during exit interviews
with our departing employees, we believe it is critical to provide our
highest-performing employees with opportunities to increase their equity ownership
in the Company.
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In March 2005, the Compensation Committee authorized the issuance of up to
$165 million in restricted stock units (RSUs) under the LTIP to current managing
directors and other key employees. These awards were granted over the course of
our 2005 and 2006 fiscal years. We believe these RSU awards aided in reducing our
voluntary attrition rate for our managing director group from 17% (annualized) in
the first quarter of fiscal 2005 to less than half that level in the third quarter
of fiscal 2006. |
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If the proposed LTIP share increase is approved, we will proceed to work with
the Compensation Committee (which serves as administrator of the LTIP) to complete
the development of a new equity-based retention strategy. Subject to the approval
of the Compensation Committee, management currently expects to propose a strategy
that would involve the following: |
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The majority of grants will be made to senior-level employees, including
managing directors and high-performing senior managers. |
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We would grant the majority of the awards in 2007. |
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All of the grants made under the new proposed equity-based
retention strategy would vest over a multiple year period and be
subject to performance-based vesting. |
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The amount and timing of related GAAP expense will take into account, among
other things, vesting and other plan terms, as well as actual performance. |
4. How much equity do employees currently own and what is the target ownership for your
employees?
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As of September 30, 2006, approximately 20 million of the 21 million RSUs
outstanding are held by our current employees. Nearly 10 million of these RSUs
have vested. |
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As of September 30, 2006, our current employees hold less than 3 million
shares. |
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Employees also hold nearly 37 million stock options, of which approximately 32
million are vested. Based on our share price as of November 28, 2006, and
applying the treasury method to vested stock options, our employees would be
able to purchase less than 500,000 shares. |
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Relative to market benchmarks, our most senior employees have a low level of
ownership in the Company. While we do not have any targeted ownership levels, we
do believe it is critical to provide our highest-performing employees with
opportunities to increase their equity ownership in the Company. |
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While we do not expect the proposed awards to increase equity ownership to the
same level as our peer group companies, we anticipate that overall equity
ownership will increase as a result of new awards. |
5. Will you be granting stock options or other forms of equity?
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We expect future awards to be made in the form of RSUs (unless prohibited
in a particular country) rather than stock options. |
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We are following the trend of many companies, including our peer group
companies, which have shifted away from granting stock options since they create
too much of an all-or-nothing proposition for providing incentives to employees.
We believe that the current market practice of utilizing RSUs provides a better
balance between rewarding for company performance and retentive value. |
6. Will you apply performance measures to the awards? Are the performance standards
subject to adjustment?
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We expect our future LTIP awards to vest over several years, with vesting of
awards issued under the proposed equity-based retention strategy to be based on
performance measures, based primarily on company performance measures including
total shareholder return. |
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We do not expect the performance standards to be adjusted; however, the final
formulation of these awards and continued oversight over the achievement or
adjustment of these standards will likely remain with the Compensation Committee. |
7. What steps will you take to offset dilution from the additional shares granted under
the Plan with increased stockholder value?
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First, it is worth noting that, our outstanding stock options, the
majority of which were granted before 2005, have limited retentive value since
they were granted with exercise prices that are still near or above our common
stocks current fair market value. We expect these options to continue to have
minimal dilutive effect. |
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We will consider whether or not to utilize the existing $64 million we have
available for share buybacks and/or seek additional authorization from our Board
for this purpose after we become current in our SEC filings. |
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We hope that the performance-based vesting for awards will also result in
increased shareholder value that addresses the initial dilutive impact of these
awards. |
8. How much of your current overhang is represented by underwater options?
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A significant portion of our current overhang (approximately 58 million
shares/share-equivalents) has resulted from stock options granted with exercise
prices that are still near or above our common stocks current fair market value. |
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Of the approximately 37 million stock options outstanding, at September 30,
2006, the weighted average strike price is over $11 per share. |
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Once we have become current in our SEC filings, we may consider alternatives to
minimize the number of options outstanding. |
9. Are there any particular Company issues that account for the overhang being so high? Does the fact that you are not current with your
SEC filings inhibit employees from exercising awards?
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A significant portion of our current overhang has resulted from stock
options granted with exercise prices that are still near or above our common
stocks current fair market value. |
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Because we are not current in our SEC filings, we are unable to provide holders
of our LTIP awards with freely tradable shares of our common stock. Consequently,
we have not issued shares underlying LTIP awards since January 2005, and
significant features of many of our employee equity plans remain suspended. |
10. What has been your forfeiture rate over the past few years? Do you expect
forfeitures to continue at that rate?
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During 2005, approximately 17.8 million stock options, or 30% of
outstanding awards at December 31, 2004, were forfeited. During 2004,
approximately 7.6 million stock options, or 13% of outstanding awards at December
31, 2003, were forfeited. |
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The forfeiture rate for RSUs, which were first granted in 2005, has been
relatively low, with only approximately 500,000 RSUs forfeited during 2005. |
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We believe that our forfeitures have been exacerbated by the challenges the
Company has faced, including aggressive attempts by our competitors to hire our
people and our inability to fully implement important changes in our compensation
structure as a result of our not being current with our SEC filings. |
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We expect that future, RSU-based equity programs will help contribute to the
retention of our employees, contributing to a reduction of our future forfeiture
rate. |
11. What do you expect your GAAP expense to be from any future grants?
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We cannot calculate the potential GAAP expense of future equity grants until we
have finalized the amount and terms of the potential grants. |
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GAAP expense will be based on the fair value as of the grant date and will be
affected by estimated and actual forfeitures. Depending on the structure of
awards, GAAP expense may also be impacted by the achievement of, or the failure to
achieve, the performance-based vesting conditions. |
12. How will you manage your future burn rate, including the use of the additional 25
million shares? How long do you expect the awards requested
under the LTIP to last?
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Our historical burn rate would have been well below 8%, if the forfeitures
made during that time period were included. |
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We will continue to be mindful of burn rate and other metrics in our final plan
design. |
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We expect that if the amendments to our LTIP are approved at the shareholder
meeting, then we will have sufficient capacity under our LTIP to meet our
anticipated RSU and other equity award needs through 2009. |
13. When do you expect to be fully current in your SEC filings? If there is a
significant delay in becoming current, will that affect your compensation program?
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Having filed the 2005 10K, we are now able to focus on filing our 2005 10-Qs
and our 2006 financial statements. |
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We currently do not anticipate becoming current in our periodic filings with
the SEC before late spring of 2007, at the earliest. The longer it takes us to
become current in our filings, the more uncertainty there will be around when we
can finally settle the awards outstanding under our LTIP in a way that permits our
employees to realize the value associated with their awards. |
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We are also working to develop arrangements for the orderly settlement and sale of the
shares underlying our previously granted 2005 retention bonus RSUs. As we have
not yet become current in our SEC filings, we have been unable to settle and, more
importantly, our employees have been unable to sell, any of the shares that have
vested under our 2005 retention bonus RSU awards. We will seek to
provide orderly opportunities for settlement and sale of these shares shortly
after we become current in our SEC filings. Shares received upon the settlement
of most of our 2005 RSU grants are subject to transfer restrictions and can only
be sold through Company-approved transactions. We are working to develop
arrangements with external brokers that will permit our managing
directors to make their
own decisions about liquidating their shares, but in an orderly fashion that
should not materially impact our stock price. |
14. Have you not considered increasing the variable portion of cash compensation based
on performance standards?
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We have adopted important changes to our compensation structure that, for more
senior employees, will involve lower cash base compensation, and higher variable,
performance-based compensation. We expect these plans to be fully implemented
shortly after we become current in our SEC filings and our employees will again be
available to have access to the equity awards that they have acquired under our
LTIP. |
15. If the amendments to the LTIP are not approved, what will you do?
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We will work on developing a performance-based, cash bonus program aimed
at retaining and providing incentives for our highest-performing employees. |
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
These additional proxy solicitation materials contain forward-looking statements. Words such
as may, will, could, would, should, anticipate, expects, intends, plans,
believes and similar words are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These
statements are only predictions and as such are not guarantees of future performance and involve
risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Forward-looking statements are
based upon assumptions that as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Actual outcomes
and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking
statements. As a result, these statements speak only as of the date of these additional proxy
solicitation materials, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Actual results may differ from the forward-looking statements for many reasons, including, without
limitation, the following:
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we may be unable to retain key employees utilizing our retention
strategy of granting awards under the LTIP or our current retention
strategy may not meet market demands in a manner sufficient to retain
certain key employees; |
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the market price of shares of our common stock underlying award grants
may fluctuate in a manner that increases or decreases the value of
awards granted under the LTIP; |
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the attrition and forfeiture assumptions the we have used in
determining the number of shares of common stock that we likely will
need under the LTIP to implement our retention strategy may be
inaccurate; and |
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unforeseen critical needs may impact our ability to implement, or our
need to modify, our retention strategy. |
Please refer to the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31,
2005, and other reports filed with the SEC and available at http://www.sec.gov/ for additional
information regarding risk factors.