ValueVision Media Announces Accelerated Vesting of Underwater Options

ValueVision Media Announces Accelerated Vesting of Underwater Options

MINNEAPOLIS, Dec. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ValueVision Media, Inc (NASDAQ:VVTV) announced today that its Board of Directors has approved accelerating the vesting of approximately 1.2 million unvested, "out-of-money" stock options awarded to employees and officers under its 2001 and 2004 Omnibus Stock Plans along with other non-statutory stock option awards.

The accelerated options have exercise prices ranging from $11.80 to $19.26 per share and a weighted average exercise price of $15.06 per share. As a condition of the acceleration, and to avoid any unintended personal benefits to the Company's executive officers, the Company also imposed a holding period on shares underlying the accelerated options held by certain executive officers. This holding period requires all such optionees to refrain from selling any shares acquired upon the exercise of the accelerated options until the date on which such shares would have vested under the options' original vesting terms.

The primary purpose of the accelerated vesting is to enable the Company to avoid recognizing future compensation expense associated with the accelerated stock options upon the effectiveness of FASB Statement No. 123R, "Share-Based Payment", ("SFAS 123R"). In addition, because these options have exercise prices in excess of current market values and are not fully achieving their original objectives of incentive compensation and employee retention, the acceleration may have a positive effect on employee morale and retention. The Company expects the acceleration to reduce the stock option expense it would otherwise be required to record in fiscal 2006 pursuant to SFAS 123R beginning in February 2006 by approximately $4.3 million on a pre-tax basis.

About ValueVision Media, Inc.

Founded in 1990, ValueVision Media is an integrated direct marketing company that sells its products directly to consumers through television, the Internet, and direct mail. For more information, please visit http://www.valuevisionmedia.com/ or http://www.shopnbc.com/ .

Source: ValueVision Media, Inc.

CONTACT: Heather Faulkner, Director of Communications of ValueVision
Media, Inc., +1-952-943-6736, or hfaulkner@ShopNBC.com

Web site: http://www.shopnbc.com/
http://www.valuevisionmedia.com/

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