Gannett's HR chief, Roxanne Horning, cashed in options on 8,500 GCI shares today, earning a pre-tax profit of $82,545, a regulatory filing shows.
The options carried a so-called strike price of $3.75 a share. She sold them for $13.46 each, according to the Form 4 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Horning and other executives got the options in February 2009 as part of their 2008 annual pay. They vested -- or became her property -- in four equal installments starting Feb. 25, 2010.
In total, Horning had received 34,000 options. She has 17,000 remaining from the 2009 grant.
GCI's stock closed today at $13.55, up 1.2%.
Related: table shows 2008 pay for five highest-paid executives.
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| Horning |
Horning and other executives got the options in February 2009 as part of their 2008 annual pay. They vested -- or became her property -- in four equal installments starting Feb. 25, 2010.
In total, Horning had received 34,000 options. She has 17,000 remaining from the 2009 grant.
GCI's stock closed today at $13.55, up 1.2%.
Related: table shows 2008 pay for five highest-paid executives.
No wonder she's smiling.
ReplyDeleteWhere do these executives have their pictures taken? Sears? Every one of them look awful.
ReplyDeleteWomen power. Why should the boys have all the fun!
ReplyDeleteGood for her.
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ReplyDeleteWrote her once she was completely useless.
ReplyDeleteShe was very professional when I worked for Gannett...and very fair. One of the good folks.
ReplyDeleteReally, and she needs these options because so many other companies are trying to pull her away? Another talentless, homegrown "in the right place at the right time" overpaid GCI suit.
ReplyDeleteAsk anyone outside of GCI who Horning is and the response is "huh?"
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ReplyDeleteH.R. helped oversee thousands of layoffs as cheaply as possible this year, so in corporate's eyes, she was a good hitman.
ReplyDeleteHey 10:45 you are as clueless as Jim.
ReplyDeleteThe options she exercised were part of her compensation in 2008. This has nothing to do with this year.
The readership of this blog has absolutely no clue how public companies work.
So if she was given 34,000 options, exercised 8,500 this week and has 17,000 left, then she must have "cashed in" 8,500 last year, right? Can someone check to see whether Jim reported that?
ReplyDeleteSomebody name something positive Roxanne has ever done. One successful initiative she has ever been responsible for.
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ReplyDeleteOoh lookit all the HR people coming to the defense of Queen Roxy!
ReplyDeleteNo doubt that GCI HR is particularly vigilant and upset about this blog -- and I heard direct comments from HR about their fear and hate of this blog as a participant in the Gannett Leadership program last Fall.
I wonder how long they will censor peoples opinions by making them comment through FaceBook.
ReplyDeleteIts been pretty hilarious to see comments go from thousands a day to a trickle of a few. Gannett is promoting censorship
11:03 Horning exercised her first tranche in March 2010. I reported that in this post.
ReplyDeleteShe could have exercised 8,500 in February 2011, but records show she did not do so -- waiting until today. In doing so, she actually sold them for less than what she would have gotten in February, when shares were trading in the range of $16 toward the end of that month.
I can only guess why she waited until now: perhaps this was part of a year-end tax strategy.
Following is 10:39's edited comment, and my response:
ReplyDelete"The real problem with this post is that Jim, who says he was a business journalist, has no clue about executive compensation in public companies. So he provides no context whenever he puts up one of these "there was a filing at the SEC today" posts."
My response: 10:39 doesn't demonstrate any such executive compensation expertise of his/her own. (He or she was, however, capable of using an expletive that I've removed.)
That said, I would like to include more context in posts like this. But I can devote only so much time to this blog, given the (small) income I earn here.
Some useful context in Horning's case would include a comparison of her compensation to that of other HR professionals in similar jobs/companies/industries.
But we face a fundamental obstacle: Gannett doesn't disclose Horning's overall compensation.
Perhaps other readers have additional insight.
Weak smoke, Jim. Either get the details or admit you can't.
ReplyDeleteSo 2:04 Jim, let me get this straight, because you can't devote much time to the blog because you make peanuts and live in the most expensive city in the world, you lob bombs with little or no context? Wow, now that's journalism. What's funny is you used to report on business yet you look at this story and miss what is a very basic business 101 question. And no Jimmy I am not going to give it to you. You will have to actually do a little work on this one. So put down your latte, stop phoning it in and do a little work. Oh I forgot, you are too "busy!"
ReplyDeleteThis feels very sexist. A woman plays in the men's sandbox and you all pounce. Hmmmmm. I don't remember anything recently on this topic attacking male executives. What's the problem boys, hard to sit back and watch a woman succeed?
ReplyDeleteI have to admit Jim you are pretty tough on female executives, Crotchfeld, Washburn, Matore, Horning, Buchannan, etc. What happened in your career, female bosses hard on you and now you have a mechanism to get back at them? Or maybe it's just a coincidence
ReplyDelete3:38 And I've been easy on these executives? Craig Dubow. Bob Dickey. Dave Hunke. John Zidich. Arnie Garson. Craig Moon.
ReplyDeleteAnd most especially: former Reno Gazette-Journal Publisher Ted Power?
I am still waiting for one positive initiative Roxanne has led or initiated. Would love to know.
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ReplyDeleteI don't proclaim myself as any kind of expert, but here in the midwest we have seen at least two benefits in the last couple years from HR. The Talent Development Program, Leadership Development Program. How's that, it's two. Getting new people into the paper has changed a lot of the long standing mores around here, and having been in the LDP I can say I learned a great deal. There are lots of good things out there if you look for them. Nobody here likes that but it is true.
ReplyDeleteIn all my years there, this was another person at Corporate who was worthless.
ReplyDeleteEvery time one of us goes on short term disability and gets 100 percent pay for up to six months we can thank Horning. What have you done 8:04?
ReplyDeleteThe talemt developmemt program at Usa today has been responsible for hiring a family friend of bob dickey's and a Penn state grad who got into the talent program because of her connection to former ceo tom curley,
ReplyDeleteAre we really getting the best and the beightest, or does cronyism affect even the ypungsters Gannett brings in? Maybe Roxanne can answer that one. Hundreds of kids sought these jobs, but the deck was stacked against many of them by friends in high places.
Let's see 2:07 about 130 kids have gone through the program and it's stinks because of two alleged examples. The program is fantastic. Go after something else
ReplyDeleteI cant say if 2:07 has more examples or if others know more. But i have checked gannett's site about past talent development program participant and i am surprised how few are from top tier journalism schools. Shouldnt a company that touts itself as best in the business go for the best and the brightest? Regarldless of connections or minority status?
ReplyDelete2:43 you must be checking the wrong list. These kids represent all the top schools. Not sure when and what you looked at.
ReplyDelete2:43 so you don't want minorities and women in the program? How did it become about race?
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ReplyDelete7:19 I'm sorry you were disturbed by that post about the fellow who died a year ago in Reno. I've deleted it -- along with well over a dozen identical posts by the same author during the past year.
ReplyDeleteThe first one of those posts has already been published, here.
I can only hope the author stops copying and pasting it, and no longer adds to the grief of his surviving family members.
We have had people from talent development program at our paper and they were poor. Sorry, that one isn't going to cut it.
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