Hi BCD,

You are absolutely correct, as options get exercised it frees up new room in the pool that was previously unavailable. Though we cannot know for sure, I would tend to agree that it is Mark B. exercising and I also agree that after today, he is probably done, which would bring the option pool up to about 4,000,000 that the company can work with immediately.

It does seem like a fair bit of room especially considering L.P.'s options coming due in the next 6 months as well. However, not knowing the inner workings of POET's plans for expansion, i.e. how many people, and what type of people they will be onboarding, it is tough to say. I don't think we would see another Ajit Manocha calibre addition brought on board but then again, I never expected to see him in the first place so maybe they will surprise us? I was an absolute YES before because I felt POET needed the room and flexibility for issuance to recruit new talent ... with this room freed up, I suppose I am a bit more on the fence. L.P.'s options are still not a guarantee until 180 days from the AGM so I suppose it comes down to wondering if 4M is enough to meet their plans for new talent in the coming months ... hard to say without knowing the plans, the hiring timelines and what the going rate is for options to be competitive and still attract good people (and whether they plan to bring on anymore "all-star" talent like Manocha).

As for Rob's points regarding option exercise increasing both cash in the treasury and opening up option room .... both of which are good things ... I would also caution that option exercise can have a very depressing effect on the share price, especially if there are not a lot of shares being traded. You are essentially forced to exercise into strength (and then some people will be upset you killed the 'momentum'). But without exercising into strength, the options could significantly depress the share price. So there is a price to be paid. I guess at this point I personally feel the stock could do without the extra selling pressure that further option exerise would create as we would all like to see this get listed in the U.S. on its own merits without having to use the share consolidation backup plan. Once in the U.S., some exercise of options could take place perhaps with some prearranged deals with U.S. buyers happy to take on the new shares created to build a position without driving the price up ... while similarly the company benefits by not having the price plumment (win-win-win for both for the buyer, the company and the option exerciser).

As a reminder, for Canadian option owners ... Revenue Canada changed the rules and you have to pay the taxes immediately upon exercise on your options (whether you sell the shares or you keep the shares that are created upon exercise). The stock option plan provider (Solium in this case, for POET) thus will withhold a portion of the value from the profits (or deemed value of the shares) of your options up front on behalf of the CRA ... with the long story short being that option holders must sell significantly more options to make up this difference (adding to the selling pressure upon exercise).

BUMBLEBEE