Cognex Offers Cash For ‘Underwater’ Stock Options

Natick-based Cognex Corp. has made a cash tender offer for "underwater" stock options held by company employees.

The offer applies to employees, officers and directors holding stock options with an exercise price of more than $23 per share, which is 29 percent more than Cognex's highest stock sale price this year.

The manufacturer of machine vision sensors estimated that employees hold 5.3 million eligible options. If all are exercised under the offer, the number of outstanding company stock options would fall by 54 percent.

If all are cashed in, the company would pay a total of about $9.6 million in cash and would take a pre-tax charge of about $900,000 as a result.