Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Stockholders' Equity

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Stockholders' Equity
6 Months Ended
Jul. 31, 2016
Equity [Abstract]  
Stockholders' Equity
9. Stockholders’ Equity

2011 Compensation and Incentive Plan

In July 2011, our stockholders approved the adoption of our 2011 Compensation and Incentive Plan (the “2011 Plan”). Under the 2011 Plan, as amended in July 2013, the number of shares of common stock authorized for grant is equal to 5,300,000 shares plus the number of shares that expired, terminated, surrendered or forfeited awards subsequent to July 20, 2011 under the Amended and Restated 2005 Equity Compensation and Incentive Plan (the “2005 Plan”). Following approval of the 2011 Plan, we terminated the 2005 Plan. The 2011 Plan provides for the grant of incentive stock options, nonqualified stock options, restricted stock, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), deferred stock units (“DSUs”) and other equity based non-stock option awards as determined by the plan administrator to officers, employees, consultants, and directors of the Company. On July 13, 2016, shareholders approved an amendment to the 2011 Plan which:

 

    Approved the removal of minimum vesting periods for stock option, RSU and other stock-based awards, but excluding restricted stock, under the 2011 Plan; and

 

    Approved the material terms of the performance goals of the 2011 Plan under which tax-deductible compensation may be paid for purposes of rules under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, including the business criteria on which performance goals may be based.

 

Effective February 1, 2014, SeaChange gave its non-employee members of the Board of Directors the option to receive DSUs in lieu of RSUs, beginning with the annual grant for fiscal 2015. The number of units subject to the DSUs is determined as of the grant date and shall fully vest one year from the grant date. The shares underlying the DSUs are not vested and issued until the earlier of the director ceasing to be a member of the Board of Directors (provided such time is subsequent to the first day of the succeeding fiscal year) or immediately prior to a change in control. Commencing with fiscal 2016, we changed the policy regarding the timing of the equity grant from the first day of the applicable fiscal year to the date of our annual meeting of stockholders. To facilitate the transition, a partial year grant was made to our non-employee directors, effective February 1, 2015, and a full year grant was made to our non-employee directors, effective July 15, 2015.

We may satisfy awards upon the exercise of stock options or the vesting of stock units with newly issued shares or treasury shares. The Board of Directors is responsible for the administration of the 2011 Plan and determining the terms of each award, award exercise price, the number of shares for which each award is granted and the rate at which each award vests. In certain instances the Board of Directors may elect to modify the terms of an award. As of July 31, 2016, there were 1,184,298 shares available for future grant under the 2011 Plan.

Option awards may be granted to employees at an exercise price per share of not less than 100% of the fair market value per common share on the date of the grant. Stock units may be granted to any officer, employee, director, or consultant at a purchase price per share as determined by the Board of Directors. Option awards granted under the 2011 Plan generally vest over a period of one to four years and expire ten years from the date of the grant.

In fiscal 2016, the Board of Directors developed a new Long-Term Incentive (“LTI”) Program under which the named executive officers of the Company will receive long-term equity-based incentive awards, which are intended to align the interests of our named executive officers with the long-term interests of our stockholders and to emphasize and reinforce our focus on team success. Long-term equity-based incentive compensation awards are made in the form of stock options, RSUs and performance stock units (“PSUs”) subject to vesting based in part on the extent to which employment continues for three years.

We have granted market-based options to certain newly appointed officers. These stock options have an exercise price equal to our closing stock price on the date of grant and will vest in approximately equal increments based upon the closing price of SeaChange’s common stock. We record the fair value of these stock options using the Monte Carlo simulation model, since the stock option vesting is variable depending on the closing price of our traded common stock. The model simulated the daily trading price of the market-based stock options’ expected terms to determine if the vesting conditions would be triggered during the term. Effective April 6, 2016, Ed Terino, who previously served as our Chief Operating Officer (“COO”), was appointed Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) of SeaChange and was granted 600,000 market-based options, bringing the total of his market-based options, when added to the 200,000 market-based options he received upon hire as COO in June 2015, to 800,000 market-based options. The fair value of these stock options was estimated to be $2.0 million. As of July 31, 2016, $1.3 million remained unamortized on these market-based stock options, which will be expensed over the next 1.6 years, the remaining weighted average amortization period.

2015 Employee Stock Purchase Plan

In July 2015 we adopted the 2015 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (the “ESPP”). The purpose of the ESPP is to provide eligible employees, including executive officers of SeaChange, with the opportunity to purchase shares of our common stock at a discount through accumulated payroll deductions of up to 15%, but not less than one percent of their eligible compensation, subject to any plan limitations. Offering periods typically commence on October 1st and April 1st and end on March 31st and September 30th with the last trading day being the exercise date for the offering period. On each purchase date, eligible employees will purchase our stock at a price per share equal to 85% of the closing price of our common stock on the exercise date, but no less than par value. The maximum number of shares of our common stock which will be authorized for sale under the ESPP is 1,150,000 shares. Stock-based compensation expense related to the ESPP was immaterial for the three and six months ended July 31, 2016.