Note 14 - Stock Incentive and Employee Benefit Plans

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Compensation and Employee Benefit Plans [Text Block]

14. Stock Incentive and Employee Benefit Plans

        a. Stock Incentive Plans

The Company has share-based awards outstanding under four different plans, pursuant to which we have granted various equity based awards to key officers, employees, and directors. The exercise price of our stock options may not be less than the market value of our common stock on the date of grant. Stock options vest based on either time (generally over a one to four year period) or market performance (based on stock price appreciation) and generally expire between five and ten years after the date of grant. The fair value for options is established at the date of grant using the Black-Scholes model for options that vest based on time and the Lattice model for options that vest based on market performance. Stock grants are valued at the closing price on the date of grant.

The following is a summary of stock option transactions relating to the four plans on a combined basis for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009:

	2011					2010					2009
	Options			Weighted Average Exercise Price		Options			Weighted Average Exercise Price		Options			Weighted Average Exercise Price
Options outstanding, beginning of year		18,630,205		$	4.46		20,391,956		$	4.75		14,397,701		$	8.07
Granted		1,350,000			3.82		400,000			3.81		12,814,000			2.09
Exercised		(1,050,025	)		1.19		(1,181,743	)		2.21		(592,125	)		1.08
Canceled		(1,052,395	)		9.15		(980,008	)		12.90		(6,227,620	)		7.30
Options outstanding, end of year		17,877,785		$	4.33		18,630,205		$	4.46		20,391,956		$	4.75
Options exercisable at end of year		13,137,785		$	4.84		10,401,955		$	5.96		7,835,831		$	8.40
Options available for future grant		31,570,998					4,279,893					5,624,664

At December 31, 2011, 17,221,204 stock options were vested or expected to vest in the future with a weighted average exercise price of $4.40 and a weighted average expected life of 4.13 years.

The following table summarizes information about stock options outstanding and exercisable at December 31, 2011:

Options Outstanding										Options Exercisable
Exercise Prices				Number of Shares		Weighted Average Exercise Price		Weighted Average Remaining Contractual Life		Number of Shares		Weighted Average Exercise Price
Low		High
$	0.67	$	5.15		16,851,732	$	2.94		4.27		12,111,732	$	2.95
$	11.00	$	11.67		151,176	$	11.22		0.60		151,176	$	11.22
$	14.82	$	27.59		323,377	$	23.67		2.06		323,377	$	23.67
$	29.84	$	43.53		551,500	$	33.64		1.71		551,500	$	33.64

The fair value of each stock option granted during each of the three years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009 was estimated using the following weighted average assumptions:

	2011			2010			2009
Dividend yield		0.00	%		0.00	%		0.00	%
Expected volatility		97.40	%		93.70	%		86.32	%
Risk-free interest rate		0.75	%		1.33	%		2.21	%
Expected life	3.5 years			4.5 years			4.5 years

Based on the above assumptions, the weighted average per share fair value of options granted during the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, was $2.44, $2.63 and $1.09, respectively.

On May 14, 2008, our stockholders approved our 2008 Stock Incentive Plan (the “2008 Plan”).  Under the 2008 Plan, as amended and approved by the stockholders on May 18, 2011, the maximum number of shares of common stock that may be issued is 32,486,733 plus awards forfeited under the 2008 Plan.  During the year ended December 31, 2011, we granted 1,350,000 stock options to our employees, and issued 704,435 shares of common stock to our officers and key employees and 167,262 shares of common stock to our independent directors.

Total compensation expense recognized related to stock-based compensation was as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
	(Dollars in thousands)
Stock options	$	7,259	$	6,084	$	8,174
Stock grants		3,980		5,764		4,690
Total	$	11,239	$	11,848	$	12,864

Total unrecognized compensation expense related to stock-based compensation was as follows:

	As of December 31,
	2011			2010			2009
	Unrecognized Expense		Weighted Average Period	Unrecognized Expense		Weighted Average Period	Unrecognized Expense		Weighted Average Period
	(Dollars in thousands)
Unvested stock options	$	3,765	1.6 years	$	7,799	1.7 years	$	13,559	3.1 years

        b. Employee Benefit Plan

We have a defined contribution plan pursuant to Section 401(k) of the Internal Revenue Code. Each employee may elect to make before-tax contributions up to the current tax limits.  The Company matches employee contributions up to $5,000 per employee per year.  The Company provides this plan to help its employees save a portion of their cash compensation for retirement in a tax efficient environment.  Our contributions to the plan for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009, were $2.1 million, $2.1 million and $2.5 million, respectively.