4. Stock Incentive Plan

Legacy IronNet’s Board of Directors adopted, and its stockholders approved Legacy IronNet’s 2014 Stock Incentive Plan (the “2014 Plan”) on September 29, 2014, and on October 17, 2014, respectively. The 2014 Plan was periodically amended, most recently on June 7, 2019. The 2014 Plan permitted the grant of incentive stock options (“ISOs"), non-qualified stock options (“NSOs"), stock appreciation rights, restricted stock, restricted stock units (“RSUs"), and other stock-based awards. ISOs were only able to be granted to Legacy IronNet’s employees and to Legacy IronNet’s subsidiary corporations’ employees. All other awards could be granted to employees, directors and consultants of Legacy IronNet and to any of Legacy IronNet’s parent or subsidiary corporation’s employees or consultants. As of August 26, 2021, the closing date of the Merger, no additional awards will be granted under the 2014 Plan. The terms of the 2014 Plan will continue to govern the terms of outstanding equity awards that were granted prior to the closing date.

On August 26, 2021, per the Merger Agreement, the outstanding Legacy IronNet ISO and RSU grants issued under the 2014 Plan were converted to their post-transaction equivalents based on the conversion ratio, totaling 18,972 shares in the Company when exercised or converted.

The 2021 Equity Incentive Plan (the “2021 Plan”) was approved by Legacy LGL’s board of directors and by its stockholders on August 26, 2021. Under the 2021 Plan, upon its effectiveness, the Company was able to grant ISOs, RSUs and other equity securities to acquire, to convert into, or to receive up to 13,500 shares of common stock. The terms of the 2021 Plan include an evergreen provision that provides for an automatic share increase on February 1 of each year, in an amount equal to 5.0% of the sum of (a) the total number of shares of the Company’s common stock outstanding on January 31 of the immediately preceding fiscal year, plus (b) the number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the 2021 Plan as of January 31 of the immediately preceding fiscal year, but which have not yet been issued. In accordance with the evergreen provision, on February 1, 2022, the number of shares that can be issued under the 2021 Plan increased by 4,934 shares, with a new limit following the increase of 18,434 shares.

As of April 30, 2022, 8,028 shares remained available to issue under the 2021 Plan.

All awards under the 2014 Plan and the 2021 Plan (together, the “Stock Incentive Plans”) normally vest over a forty-eight month period, some of which have a first year cliff vest for the first 25% of their vesting, during which time no vesting occurs. In limited cases, vesting as short as twelve months with no cliff, vesting based on performance criteria and acceleration under certain events have also been permitted; however, such exceptions apply to less than 20% of the shares underlying awards currently outstanding under the Stock Incentive Plans.

Stock Options

The exercise price of each ISO granted under the Stock Incentive Plans may not be less than the fair market value per share of the underlying common stock on the date of grant. The Board of Directors establishes the term and the vesting of all options issued under the Stock Incentive Plans; however, in no event will the term exceed ten years.

For the three months ended April 30, 2022 and 2021, the Company recorded an insignificant amount and $17 of compensation cost related to stock options, respectively. The fair value of the shares under stock options granted that vested, net of forfeitures, during the three month periods ended April 30, 2022 and 2021 totaled $(635) and $(2,951), respectively, primarily as a result of the forfeitures recognized during the periods exceeding previous estimates.

Stock compensation expense for stock options is recognized on a straight line basis and with a provision for forfeitures matched to historical experience for matured grant cohorts. At April 30, 2022, there was no unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock options.

The Company uses the Black-Scholes option pricing model to estimate the fair value of options granted. The Black-Scholes model takes into account the fair value of an ordinary share and the contractual and expected term of the stock option, expected volatility, dividend yield, and risk-free interest rate. Prior to becoming a public company, the fair value of the Company’s common stock was determined utilizing an external third-party pricing specialist.

Restricted Stock Units

In addition to the applicable time or performance-based vesting criteria, the RSUs granted under the 2014 Plan contained an additional vesting requirement that required the occurrence of a liquidity event. On August 26, 2021, the date of the Merger, the Board of Directors resolved that the Merger constituted a liquidity event, which triggered the liquidity event criteria for vesting under then outstanding RSU awards.

For the three months ended April 30, 2022, the Company recorded $11,441 of stock-based compensation expense, net of actual forfeitures, related to RSUs, of which $8,588 is associated with RSUs on a graded vesting schedule and $2,853 is associated with RSUs on a straight-line vesting schedule. No stock-based compensation was recognized associated with RSUs in the three months ended April 30, 2021.

Subsequent to the closing of the Merger, the fair value of RSUs is based on the fair value of the Company’s common stock on the date of the grant or any further modification.

Stock compensation expense for RSUs granted under the 2014 Plan, which contain both service and performance conditions, is recognized on a graded-scale basis, recognizing expense over the respective vesting period for each tranche of shares under each award granted. Stock compensation expense for RSUs granted under the 2021 Plan have only service vesting conditions and expense will be recognized on a straight-line basis for all RSU awards with only service conditions. In the event that an RSU holder is terminated before the award is fully vested for RSUs granted under either Plan, the full amount of the unvested portion of the award will be recognized as a forfeiture in the period of termination.

The Company's default tax withholding method for RSUs is the sell-to-cover method, under which shares with a market value equivalent to the tax withholding obligation are sold on behalf of the holder of the RSUs upon vesting and settlement to cover the tax withholding liability and the cash proceeds from such sales are then remitted by the Company to taxing authorities.

As of April 30, 2022, there was $57,215 of unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested RSUs without performance obligations. The weighted average remaining vesting period was 3.38 years.

Employee Stock Purchase Plan ("ESPP")

In August 2021, Legacy LGL’s Board of Directors adopted, and its stockholders approved, the ESPP. The ESPP became effective immediately upon the Closing of the Merger.

The purpose of the ESPP is to provide a means by which our eligible employees and certain designated companies may be given an opportunity to purchase shares of our common stock, to assist us in retaining the services of eligible employees, to secure and retain the services of new employees and to provide incentives for such persons to exert maximum efforts for our success.

The Plan includes two components: a 423 Component and a Non-423 Component. We intend that the 423 Component will qualify as options issued under an “employee stock purchase plan” as that term is defined in Section 423(b) of the Code. Except as otherwise provided in the ESPP or determined by our board of directors, the Non-423 Component will operate and be administered in the same manner as the 423 Component.

The ESPP contains an evergreen provision that provides for an automatic annual share increase on February 1 of each year, in an amount equal to the lesser of (i) 1% of the total number of shares of common stock outstanding on January 31st of the preceding fiscal year, and (ii) 2,000 shares of Common Stock. In accordance with the evergreen provision, the number of shares of common stock reserved for issuance under the ESPP increased by 889 shares on February 1, 2022, Inclusive of the prior limit of 2,700 shares, the new limit following the increase was 3,589 shares.

As of April 30, 2022, there were no purchases of shares for any eligible employee.