STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION | 12. STOCK-BASED COMPENSATION The Company adopted an Incentive Stock Plan on January 18, 2007. This plan is intended to provide incentives which will attract and retain highly competent persons at all levels as employees of the Company, as well as independent contractors providing consulting or advisory services to the Company, by providing them opportunities to acquire the Company's common stock or to receive monetary payments based on the value of such shares pursuant to Awards issued. While the plan terminates 10 years after the adoption date, issued options have their own schedule of termination. During 2013 the majority of the shareholders approved to increase the total available shares in the plan from 2.5 million to 3.5 million shares of common stock. During May 2014, the majority of the shareholders approved to increase the total available shares in the plan from 3.5 million to 4.25 million shares of common stock, during February 2015, the majority of the shareholders approved to increase the total available shares in the plan from 4.25 million to 4.6 million shares of common stock and during April 2015, the majority of the shareholders approved to increase the total available shares in the plan from 4.6 million to 5.1 million shares of common stock. Until 2017, options to acquire shares of common stock may be granted at no less than fair market value on the date of grant. Upon exercise, shares of new common stock are issued by the Company. The Company adopted the 2015 Stock Incentive Plan on April 30, 2015. This plan is intended to provide incentives which will attract and retain highly competent persons at all levels as employees of the Company, as well as independent contractors providing consulting or advisory services to the Company, by providing them opportunities to acquire the Company's common stock or to receive monetary payments based on the value of such shares pursuant to Awards issued. The 2015 Plan permits the grant of options and shares for up to 5,147,000 shares. In addition, there is a provision for an annual increase of 15% of the issued shares under the plan to the shares included under the plan, with the shares to be added on the first day of each calendar year, beginning on January 1, 2016. On January 1 st Cumulatively since inception, the Company has issued options to purchase approximately 5.6 million shares at an average price of $1.00 with a fair value of approximately $1.1 million. For the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, the Company recognized an expense of $801,398 and $1,157,959, respectively, of non-cash compensation expense (included in General and Administrative expense in the accompanying Consolidated Statement of Operations) determined by application of a Black Scholes option pricing model with the following inputs: exercise price, dividend yields, risk-free interest rate, and expected annual volatility. As of September 30, 2016, the Company had approximately $2,583,593 of unrecognized pre-tax non-cash compensation expense related to non-vested option-based compensation arrangements under the Plan. The Company expects to recognize this expense based on a weighted-average period of 3 years. The Company uses straight-line amortization of compensation expense over the two to three year requisite service or vesting period of the grant. There are options to purchase approximately 4.4 million shares that have vested, of which 307,000 shares were exercised as of September 30, 2016. The Company uses the Black-Scholes option-pricing model to estimate the fair value of its stock option awards and warrant issuances. The calculation of the fair value of the awards using the Black - Scholes option-pricing model is affected by the Company’s stock price on the date of grant as well as assumptions regarding the following: Nine months ended September 30, 2016 2015 Expected volatility 368% - 390% 306% Expected term 4 Years 4 Years Risk-free interest rate 1.36% - 1.61% 0.91% - 1.69% Forfeiture Rate 0.00% 0.00% Expected dividend yield 0.00% 0.00% The expected volatility was determined with reference to the historical volatility of the Company’s stock. The Company uses historical data to estimate option exercise and employee termination within the valuation model. The expected term of options granted represents the period of time that options granted are expected to be outstanding. The risk-free interest rate for periods within the contractual life of the option is based on the U.S. Treasury rate in effect at the time of grant. A summary of the status of the Company’s outstanding stock options as of September 30, 2016 and changes during the period ending on that date is as follows: Weighted Aggregate Average Exercise Intrinsic Remaining Shares Price Value Term (Yrs) Options Balance at December 31, 2015 4,634,166 $ 0.81 $ 5,286,107 5.49 Granted 1,317,500 $ 2.01 Exercised (40,000 ) $ 0.42 Forfeiture and cancelled (140,801 ) $ 1.47 At September 30, 2016 5,770,865 $ 1.07 $ 5,933,912 5.26 Exercisable at September 30, 2016 4,388,296 $ 0.82 |