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Papa John's ceases awarding stock options

August 6, 2002

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Wall Street Journalhas reported that Papa John's International, Inc., will no longer award stock options to its employees.

Earlier in the year the company said it would expense them but later decided to abandon the practice altogether.

Had Papa John's expensed its employee stock options in 2001, earnings per share would have dropped 4 cents. Because of the relatively small number of options granted since the beginning of 2000, the pro forma dilutive impact is expected to be 4 cents a share or less in 2002 and decrease in later years.

When the stock market is ahead of itself, "employees get a windfall that isn't fair to shareholders," Chris Sternberg, a Papa John's spokesman, told the Journal. "And at other times it's undervalued and that's not fair to employees" who get no benefit from the options they are awarded for their work.

Awarding employee stock options has come under fire recently in light of multiple corporate accounting scandals and purported executive abuses of company funds.