Delta dropping stock options

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/03/20/D8GFH81O1.html

Delta Seeks to Nix Employee Stock Options

Mar 20 3:43 PM US/Eastern

By HARRY R. WEBER

AP Business Writer

ATLANTA

Delta Air Lines Inc., which is operating under bankruptcy protection, asked a judge Monday to allow the nation's third-largest carrier to void roughly 93 million stock options held by 70,000 current and former employees and directors.

The Atlanta-based company said the options, if exercised, would provide little to no real value, making the $305,000 a year it costs the airline to maintain, account for and administer the benefit an unnecessary burden on Delta.

The company's motion says the request has the support of the creditors committee in its bankruptcy case and the Air Line Pilots Association, the union that represents holders of roughly one-third of the options Delta is seeking to reject.

A hearing on the request is scheduled April 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.

The options have exercise prices between $2.97 and $62.63 a share. Delta's stock has been trading in recent days at around 40 cents a share in over-the-counter trading.

"The rejection of the Delta stock options will have no practical economic effect on the option holders," the airline's motion says.

Shares of a company in bankruptcy generally become worthless once the company emerges from bankruptcy. Delta has said it expects to come out of bankruptcy by the summer of 2007.

"We didn't oppose the motion to void the stock options because they were worthless once management forced the company into bankruptcy anyway," the chairman of the pilots union's executive committee, Lee Moak, said Monday.

Excluded from Delta's motion to reject are the roughly 2.5 million forfeited options that are to be distributed to Delta pilots in November based on a prior agreement; the roughly 7.1 million options originally awarded to non-pilots under a non-pilot option plan and subsequently forfeited; and the 1 million warrants issued on Dec. 23, related to a settlement in a class action lawsuit.

Meanwhile, hearings continued Monday in Washington before an arbitration panel that will decide whether to allow Delta to void its contract with its pilots so it can impose up to $325 million in long- term pay and benefit cuts. The panel's decision is due by April 15. The pilots union has promised to strike if its contract is rejected.

At the hearings, the union continued to make its case for the stressful and unique character of the job of commercial airline pilot. Company lawyers sparred with union experts who testified over details of the pilots' defined-benefit pension plan and how much the company would save if it terminates the plan.

The pilots previously gave Delta $1 billion in annual concessions in a five-year deal in 2004.

Note: As Delta is in Chapter 11, it has ironically been candid in stating that its stocks are of "little or no real value".

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Delta Air Lines Inc., which is operating under bankruptcy protection, asked a judge Monday to allow the nation's third-largest carrier to void roughly 93 million stock options held by 70,000 current and former employees and directors.

[...]

Delta's stock has been trading in recent days at around 40 cents a share in over-the-counter trading.

"The rejection of the Delta stock options will have no practical economic effect on the option holders," the airline's motion says.

I suppose that's fair. Feel bad for all the shmucks who held on to the options this long, though.

[Keigwyn 1]

Perhaps they'll do a deal on preferential aisle seats for shareholders!

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Perhaps they'll do a deal on preferential aisle seats for shareholders!

:lol:

[almaty 19]

Perhaps they'll do a deal on preferential aisle seats for shareholders!

that was good...