Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Stock Incentive Plans

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Stock Incentive Plans
9 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2015
Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]  
Stock Incentive Plans
10. Stock Incentive Plans

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 authorized shares of common stock 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.

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, vesting of RSUs, or the issuance of DSUs 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.

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. RSUs, DSUs and other equity-based non-stock option awards 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 three years and expire ten years from the date of the grant.

We have granted market-based options to 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. As a result, the fair value was estimated to be $2.4 million for these stock options which will be expensed over the next 2.0 years.

 

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. The first offering period under the ESPP will commence October 1, 2015. 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 nine months ended October 31, 2015.