Liberty Broadband Corporation Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Stock-Based Compensation

Stock-Based Compensation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Share-based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

GCI Liberty - Incentive Plan

Pursuant to the GCI Liberty, Inc. 2018 Omnibus Incentive Plan, the Company may grant Awards to be made in respect of a maximum of 8.0 million shares of GCI Liberty common stock. Awards generally vest over 1-5 years and have a term of 7-10 years. GCI Liberty issues new shares upon exercise of equity awards.

GCI Liberty - Grants of Stock Options

During the year ended December 31, 2019, the Company granted to its non-employee directors and its employees 57,000 options to purchase shares of GCI Liberty Series A common stock. Such options had a weighted average grant-date fair value ("GDFV") of $18.71 per share and cliff vest in one year for non-employee directors and between three and five years for employees. During the year ended December 31, 2018, the Company granted to its non-employee directors 10,000 options to purchase shares of GCI Liberty Series A common stock. Such options had a weighted average GDFV of $14.09 per share and generally cliff vest in one year. During the year ended December 31, 2017, the Company granted to its non-employee directors and its employees 188,000 options to purchase shares of LVNTA. Such options had a weighted average GDFV of $16.52 per share and vest in one year for non-employee directors and between three and five years for employees.

Also during the year ended December 31, 2019 the Company granted 22,000 options to purchase shares of GCI Liberty Series B common stock to the Company's CEO. Such options had a GDFV of $18.27 per share and cliff vested immediately upon grant. During the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2017, and in connection with the Company's CEO's employment agreement, the Company granted 143,000 and 269,000 options, respectively, to purchase shares of LVNTB to the Company's CEO. Such options had a GDFV of $16.55 and $15.41 per share, respectively, and cliff vested at the end of their respective grant year.

In connection with the Option Exchange (see below), the Company granted 946,000 and 1.1 million options to purchase shares of LVNTA and LVNTB, respectively. Such options have an incremental weighted average GDFV of $8.53 and $6.94, respectively.

In addition to the stock option grants to the Company’s CEO, the Company granted 51,000 performance-based restricted stock units ("RSUs") of GCI Liberty Series B common stock in 2019. The RSUs had a GDFV of $53.78 per share at the time they were granted and cliff vest one year from the month of grant, subject to the satisfaction of certain performance objectives and based on an amount determined by the compensation committee. Performance objectives, which are subjective, are considered in determing the timing and amount of the compensation expense. The probability of satisfying the performance objectives is assessed at the end of each reporting period.

During the fourth quarter of 2017, prior to the HoldCo Split-Off, Qurate Retail entered into a series of transactions with certain of its officers, associated with certain outstanding stock options, in order to recognize tax deductions in 2017 versus future years (the "Option Exchange"). On December 26, 2017 (the "Grant Date"), pursuant to the approval of the Compensation Committee of its Board of Directors, Qurate Retail effected the acceleration of (i) each unvested in-the-money option to acquire shares of LVNTA and (ii) each unvested in-the-money option to acquire shares of LVNTB, in each case, held by certain of its officers (collectively, the "Eligible Optionholders"). Following this acceleration, also on the Grant Date, each Eligible Optionholder exercised, on a net settled basis, all of his outstanding in-the-money vested and unvested options to acquire LVNTA shares and LVNTB shares (the "Eligible Options"), and:

•

with respect to each vested Eligible Option, Qurate Retail granted the Eligible Optionholder a vested new option with substantially the same terms and conditions as the exercised vested Eligible Option, except that the exercise price for the new option was, in the case of options to acquire shares of LVNTA, the closing price on the Grant Date per LVNTA share and, in the case of options to acquire shares of LVNTB, the fair market value on the Grant Date of the LVNTB shares as determined pursuant to the incentive plan under which the awards were granted; and


•	with respect to each unvested Eligible Option:

•

in satisfaction of the exercise, on a net settled basis, of the unvested Eligible Options, Qurate Retail granted the Eligible Optionholder a number of restricted LVNTA or LVNTB shares (the "Restricted Shares") with a vesting schedule identical to that of the unvested Eligible Options so exercised, and the Eligible Optionholder made an election under Section 83(b) of the Internal Revenue Code with respect to such Restricted Shares; and

•

Qurate Retail granted the Eligible Optionholder a new option (the "Unvested New Option") to acquire the same series of common stock and with substantially the same terms and conditions, including with respect to vesting and expiration, as the unvested Eligible Option exercised as set forth above, except that the number of LVNTA or LVNTB shares subject to such Unvested New Option was equal to the number of shares subject to the unvested Eligible Option minus the number of Restricted Shares received upon exercise of such unvested Eligible Option. The exercise price of such new option was, in the case of a LVNTA option, the closing price on the Grant Date per share of LVNTA, or, in the case of a LVNTB option, the fair market value on the Grant Date of the LVNTB shares as determined pursuant to the incentive plan under which the Unvested New Options were granted.

The Option Exchange was considered a modification under ASC 718 — Stock Compensation, with the following impacts on compensation expense. The unamortized value of the unvested Eligible Options that were exercised, which was $13.5 million for LVNTA and LVNTB combined, will be expensed over the vesting period of the Restricted Shares attributable to the exercise of those options. The grant of new vested options resulted in incremental compensation expense in the fourth quarter of 2017 of $9.2 million for LVNTA and LVNTB combined. The grant of Unvested New Options resulted in incremental compensation expense totaling $6.4 million for LVNTA and LVNTB combined, which will be amortized over the vesting periods of those options.

The Company has calculated the GDFV for all of its equity classified Awards and any subsequent remeasurement of its liability classified Awards using the Black-Scholes-Merton Model. The Company estimates the expected term of the Awards based on historical exercise and forfeiture data. For grants made in 2019, 2018 and 2017, the range of expected terms was 2.0 to 6.4 years. The volatility used in the calculation for Awards is based on the historical volatility of GCI Liberty's stock and the implied volatility of publicly traded GCI Liberty options. For grants made in 2019, 2018 and 2017 the range of volatilities was 24.8% to 31.6%. The Company uses a zero dividend rate and the risk-free rate for Treasury Bonds with a term similar to that of the subject options.

GCI Liberty - Outstanding Awards

The following tables present the number and weighted average exercise price ("WAEP") of Awards to purchase GCI Liberty common stock granted to certain officers, employees and directors of the Company, as well as the weighted average remaining life and aggregate intrinsic value of the Awards.



	Series A
					Weighted		Aggregate
					average		intrinsic
	Awards				remaining		value
	(000's)		WAEP		life		(millions)
Outstanding at January 1, 2019	1,650		$	47.61
Granted	57		$	71.09
Exercised	(1,054	)	$	47.49
Forfeited/Cancelled	(49	)	$	55.65
Outstanding at December 31, 2019	604		$	48.67	4.4	years	$	13
Exercisable at December 31, 2019	403		$	46.75	4.2	years	$	10



	Series B
				Weighted		Aggregate
				average		intrinsic
	Awards			remaining		value
	(000's)	WAEP		life		(millions)
Outstanding at January 1, 2019	1,223	$	56.10
Granted	22	$	58.11
Exercised	—	$	—
Forfeited/Cancelled	—	$	—
Outstanding at December 31, 2019	1,245	$	56.14	3.1	years	$	22
Exercisable at December 31, 2019	1,245	$	56.14	3.1	years	$	22

As of December 31, 2019, the total unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested options and RSAs was approximately $2.5 million and $18.2 million, respectively. Such amounts will be recognized in the Company's consolidated statements of operations over a weighted average period of approximately 1.6 years and 2.5 years, respectively.

As of December 31, 2019, GCI Liberty reserved for issuance upon exercise of outstanding stock options approximately 600 thousand shares of GCI Liberty Series A common stock and 1.2 million shares of GCI Liberty Series B common stock.

GCI Liberty - Exercises

The aggregate intrinsic value of all options exercised during the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 was $20.9 million, $0.8 million and $71.9 million, respectively. The aggregate intrinsic value of options exercised for the year ended December 31, 2017 includes approximately $56.3 million related to the intrinsic value of options exercised as a result of the Option Exchange.

GCI Liberty - Restricted Shares

As of December 31, 2019, GCI Liberty had approximately 748,000 and 83,000 unvested RSAs and RSUs of GCI Liberty common stock and preferred stock, respectively, held by certain directors, officers and employees of the Company. These Series A common stock, Series B common stock and Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred unvested RSAs, along with the Series A common stock unvested RSUs of GCI Liberty had a weighted average GDFV of $48.22 per share.

The aggregate fair value of all restricted shares of GCI Liberty common and preferred stock that vested during the years ended December 31, 2019, 2018 and 2017 was $17.2 million, $21.9 million and $2.3 million, respectively.