RE:Too many apologists c'mon DB --- be reasonable here. When it comes time to be critical....I am....like missing deadlines...lack fo communication...etc.
However, even you can acknowledge (I would think) how stock options work. I will tell you one thing, when I excercised stock options in my experience....and from I've been told...it is STANDARD practice to excercise at a time when the holder believes will be best for them to maximize their return. Are you suggesting this is NOT normal. And yet...perhaps you didn't see it....Paul has stated he always excercises his options when at expiry date.
Do you realize he could have increased his income by $100,000 if he had exercised those options 1 month or so earlier (if what they were 5 year option and expired basically today). NO --- he waited unitl the very last minute to avoid criticism like you are leveling like...such as " Why did Paul exercise the option after 4 years / 11 months rather than waiting for the 5 years....does he believe the stock was going to go down the last month?" etc. etc. etc. Do you have personal experience excercising stock options and understand tax ramificatoins of such?
How's this ---- I believe Paul selling Casino for $3- $4usd and collecting all the upside from that (and annual dividends from that re-invested in RIo, etc) in addition to his ongoing salary and options/grants of Rio stock as President Casino Mining Corp (or whatever his future career) would greatly offset his current total annual comp with WRN.