Emmis Awards Stocks To 598 Employees

Emmis Communications has announced it is rewarding employees with sizeable stock awards.

The awards will be made under the compnay's 2012 Employee Retention Plan and will be made to about about 75% of its fulltime employees.

The Plan excludes executive officers and caps the level of salary credit at $50,000:

• A full-time employee of Emmis who has been with the company since April 2, 2012, making a salary of $40,000 a year will get approximately 1,480 shares, which bear a market value of $4913.60, using the closing price of $3.32 per share as of last Friday, March 7. 
• Employees making $30,000 a year will receive 1,105 shares -- current market value of $3,679 
• $40,000 employees will get 1,480 shares with a market value of $4,927
• Anyone making $50,000 or more will receive 1,841 shares with a current market value of $6,132. 

The awards will vest on April 2 and will be distributed to employees shortly thereafter. It will be their choice whether to hold or sell the stock.

According to Emmis, some 598 eligible employees will receive a pro-rata share of approximately 976,000 shares of Emmis Communications common stock worth about $3,240,000.

Eligible employees received a nice note from Emmis Chairman/President/CEO Jeff Smulyan and COO/CFO Pat Walsh that said, "We hope you are pleased with this long-awaited award. Emmis prides itself on valuing its employees' dedication and commitment -- and our stellar performance over the past few years shows the difference that extraordinarily talented and dedicated employees can make. This is a token of our appreciation and reward for your efforts over the last several years."