Sunday, May 18, 2008

iRobot's Principal Accounting Officer cashes in 2015 options for meager profit!

Alison Dean, an iRobot vice president and "principal accounting officer", exercised options for 25,000 shares at about $18 a share, with a strike price of $14.54 and an exercise date of 2015! Details at this link. (Thx, Microcapfun)

Alison Dean comes with a solid pedigree (Brown University, etc.), but this would seem to be one of the dumbest financial moves I've seen since the Knicks signed an aging Allan Houston to a 7-year guaranteed contract. She cashed in $3.50 a share in profits when she could have waited at any point for the next 7 years to make more. Even a jump back to $20 would have meant an extra 60% gain! I wonder what the market would have priced a 2015 option at? Surely far more than $3.50 a share! [In fact, Alison, if there is any way you can buy back those options and sell them to me, I'll give you $5 a share right now!] I wonder if there is a good reason for this, like she has an upside down jumbo mortgage on a yacht and needs cash fast, or has a job offer as an analyst at Goldman and is jumping ship and needs to rid herself of conflicts of interest?

At any rate, it's not exactly a vote of confidence when your chief accountant makes moves like this.

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