ISS also is asking shareholders to raise that to 4 percent a year. The ISS board approved the amendment on March 19. The goal of options plans has always been to align employee and shareholder interests. All ISS employees have the option to buy stock either through an employee stock purchase plan or through options. ISS stock option plans utilize annual vesting over four years.
Shareholders are really quite tolerant of high pay if it is associated with high performance.
Noonan maintains that the request for additional shares is not driven by underwater options. The Robinson-Humphrey Co. ISS went public in 1998. So in order to continue to retain key employees, they need to have the ability to reload their option packages. I think that's pretty much what's driving this. The number of approved shares can be thought of as a line of credit.