Transaction system for employee stock options and other compensation programs
First Claim
1. A method of selling compensation instruments issued by an issuer comprising:
- receiving a sale order for the compensation instruments from a seller, where the sale order indicates a price and a quantity of the compensation instruments to be sold;
determining at least one winning bidder, from at least two bidders, of an auction for the compensation instruments based on bids submitted by the at least two bidders that specify an offer price for the compensation instruments;
suspending determination of the at least one winning bidder until there are the at least two bidders with qualifying bids that recite a quantity of compensation instruments equal to or greater than the number of compensation instruments to be sold in the auction as specified in the seller'"'"'s sale order;
transferring a derivative in place of the compensation instruments to at least one winning bidder, wherein the derivative entitles the holder thereof to buy a specific quantity of securities of an issuer at the price; and
transferring net proceeds from the sale of the compensation instruments to an account of the seller.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods of selling employee stock options (ESOs) and other compensation instruments. The method may comprise the steps of receiving a sale order for the employee stock options from a seller, where the sale order indicates the price of the employee stock options to be sold and the number of employee stock options to be sold. The method may also comprise the step of determining a winning bidder, from the at least two bidders, of an auction for the employee stock options based on bids submitted by the at least two bidders that specify a price for the employee stock options. The method may further comprise suspending the auction until there are qualifying bids from at least two bidders. The method may also comprise transferring a derivative in place of the employee stock options to the winning bidder, wherein the derivative entitles the holder thereof to buy a quantity of securities of an issuer at the price. The method may also comprise transferring net proceeds from the sale of the employee stock options to an account of the seller.
111 Citations
56 Claims
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1. A method of selling compensation instruments issued by an issuer comprising:
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receiving a sale order for the compensation instruments from a seller, where the sale order indicates a price and a quantity of the compensation instruments to be sold; determining at least one winning bidder, from at least two bidders, of an auction for the compensation instruments based on bids submitted by the at least two bidders that specify an offer price for the compensation instruments; suspending determination of the at least one winning bidder until there are the at least two bidders with qualifying bids that recite a quantity of compensation instruments equal to or greater than the number of compensation instruments to be sold in the auction as specified in the seller'"'"'s sale order; transferring a derivative in place of the compensation instruments to at least one winning bidder, wherein the derivative entitles the holder thereof to buy a specific quantity of securities of an issuer at the price; and transferring net proceeds from the sale of the compensation instruments to an account of the seller. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 51, 52, 53, 54)
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21. A transaction system for transacting sales of compensation instruments comprising:
at least one transaction engine for executing a sale of the compensation instruments, wherein at least one winning bidder for each transaction is determined based on (1) a received sale order from a seller that indicates the strike price of the compensation instruments to be sold and the quantity of compensation instruments to be sold, and (2) a bid quote from each of at least two bidders that includes a bid size quote and an offer price for the compensation instruments, and wherein the at least one transaction engine is programmed to suspend execution of a transaction when there is only one bidder whose bid size quote is equal to or greater than the number of compensation instrument to be sold in the auction as specified in the received sale order until the bid quote from at least one other bidder is refreshed so that there are at least two bidders whose bid size quote is equal to or greater than the number of employee stock options to be sold in the transaction. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 55, 56)
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45. A method of selling compensation instruments issued by an issuer comprising:
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receiving a sale order for the compensation instruments from a seller, where the sale order indicates a price and a quantity of the compensation instruments to be sold; determining at least one winning bidder of an auction for the compensation instruments based on bids submitted by one or more participating bidders that specify an offer price for the compensation instruments; transferring a derivative in place of the compensation instruments to at least one winning bidder, wherein the derivative entitles the holder thereof to buy a specific quantity of securities of an issuer at the price; and transferring net proceeds from the sale of the compensation instruments to an account of the seller, wherein the one or more participating bidders are not made aware of bids from other participating bidders. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification