OK, here's just something I spotted happening with IBM stocks. Lots of phantom stocks are moving.
About 16 executives, even including some I've interviewed like
Rod Adkins
, acquired phantom stocks.
I talked to Adkins about cloud computing, which made understandable to even me. He was also the guy assumed to have written a purported leaked layoff memo a couple years ago.
being a simple journalist, I guessed phantom stocks were what was used to punish Puritan phantoms.
Not so, according to Wikipedia:
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Phantom stock is a method for companies to give their management or employees a
bonus
if the company performs well financially. Phantom stock provides a cash or stock bonus based on the value of a stated number of
shares
, to be paid out at the end of a specified period of time.
Phantom stock is essentially a cash bonus plan, although some plans pay out the benefits in the form of shares. Phantom stock is favored by closely held or family-owned companies who want to
incentivize
management and other employees without granting them
equity
.
Trying to interpret these filings, I believe the executive are converting the phantoms into real stocks. And I assume these were all awarded at the same time as some sort of bonus.
But I'm not sure. All I think of is Scooby Doo when the word phantom is used.
For the record, Adkins acquired 98 shares of IBM stock today for a total holding of 16,739. CEO Sam Palmisano collected 374 for a total holding now of 64,109 shares.
IBM is trading at $85.38 a share today.
