EQUITY-BASED COMPENSATION PLANS

6 Months Ended

Dec. 24, 2017

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Abstract]

The Lam Research Corporation 2015 Stock Incentive Plan, as amended (the “2015 Plan”), provides for the grant of non-qualified equity-based awards of the Company’s Common Stock to eligible employees and non-employee directors, including stock options, restricted stock units (“RSUs”), and market-based performance RSUs (“market-based PRSUs”). An option is a right to purchase Common Stock at a set price. An RSU award is an agreement to issue a set number of shares of Common Stock at the time of vesting. The Company’s market-based PRSUs contain both a market condition and a service condition. The Company’s options, RSU, and market-based PRSU awards typically vest over a period of three years. The Company also has an employee stock purchase plan that allows employees to purchase its Common Stock at a discount through payroll deductions.

The Company recognized the following equity-based compensation expense (including expense related to the employee stock purchase plan) and related income tax benefit in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations:



	Three Months Ended				Six Months Ended
	December 24, 2017		December 25, 2016		December 24, 2017		December 25, 2016
	(in thousands)
Equity-based compensation expense	$	42,124	$	32,255	$	83,907	$	70,850
Income tax benefit recognized related to equity-based compensation expense	$	18,089	$	8,815	$	31,477	$	19,721

The estimated fair value of the Company’s stock-based awards, less expected forfeitures, is amortized over the awards’ vesting term on a straight-line basis. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2016-9, “Compensation – Stock Compensation,” as discussed further in Note 2.

ESPP

The 1999 Employee Stock Purchase Plan, as amended and restated (the “1999 ESPP”), allows employees to designate a portion of their base compensation to be withheld through payroll deductions and used to purchase Common Stock at a purchase price per share equal to the lower of 85% of the fair market value of Common Stock on the first or last day of the applicable purchase period. Typically, each offering period lasts up to twelve months and comprises two interim purchase dates.

During the three and six months ended December 24, 2017, a total of 412,469 shares of the Company’s Common Stock were sold to employees under the 1999 ESPP.

Purchase rights under the 1999 ESPP were valued using the Black-Scholes option valuation model and the following weighted-average assumptions for the three and six months ended December 24, 2017 and December 25, 2016:



	Three and Six Months Ended
	December 24, 2017		December 25, 2016
Expected stock price volatility	29.13	%	33.02	%
Risk-free interest rate	0.82	%	0.43	%
Expected term (years)	0.77		0.77
Dividend yield	0.89	%	1.14	%