IBM announces $1,000 stock bonanza for employees

IBM on Monday said it would give $1,000 worth of shares as bonus to each of its over one lakh employees in India as part of its centennial celebrations.

'Big Blue' will celebrate 100 years of existence on 16 June this year, even as the information technology industry emerges from the recession.

To mark the occasion, IBM will give each of its non-executive employees globally a $1,000 stock bonus. "IBM employees globally, except those at the executive level, will receive $1,000 in stock bonuses," an IBM India spokesperson said.

He declined to comment on IBM's India headcount, since the company does not disclose country-level employee numbers. However, industry analysts peg the strength of the company's India-based workforce at around 1,28,000. IBM has 400,000 employees globally.

"The company is still working on the eligibility criteria for the bonus. However, one of the criteria is that the person has to be an employee (full-timers and part-timers included) of IBM or its wholly-owned subsidiaries before 31 December 2010," the spokesperson said. Also, since these stock incentives will not vest until 2015, anybody quitting the company before 16 June 2015 will no longer be eligible to receive shares.

Eligible IBM employees will be offered 'restrictive stock units' (RSU), under which the employee will be promised returns on the stocks awarded without actually owning them. This means that at a stock value of $159 (as on 28 January), the $1,000 stock bonus will translate into six or seven stock units. And given that IBM's shares have more than doubled over the past five years, these employees can look forward to reaping rich dividends.