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EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS | 12 Months Ended
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May. 31, 2015
Employee Benefit Plans [Abstract] |
EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS | 14. EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLANS Stock-based Compensation Plans Stock Plans In fiscal 2001, we adopted the 2000 Long-Term Equity Incentive Plan, which provides for the issuance of non-qualified stock options and incentive stock options, as well as stock purchase rights, stock appreciation rights, and long-term performance awards, including restricted stock-based awards, to our eligible employees, officers and directors who are also employees or consultants, independent consultants and advisers. In fiscal 2011, our stockholders, upon the recommendation of our Board of Directors (the Board), approved the adoption of the Amended and Restated 2000 Long-Term Equity Incentive Plan (the 2000 Plan), which extended the termination date of the 2000 Plan by ten years and increased the number of authorized shares of stock that may be issued by 388,313,015 shares. In fiscal 2014, our stockholders, upon the recommendation of our Board, approved a further increase in the number of authorized shares of stock that may be issued under the 2000 Plan by 305,000,000 shares. Under the terms of the 2000 Plan, options to purchase common stock are granted at not less than fair market value, become exercisable as established by the Compensation Committee of the Board (generally 25% annually over four years under our current practice) and generally expire no more than ten years from the date of grant. Long-term full value awards are granted in the form of restricted stock units (RSUs) and performance stock units (PSUs). The vesting schedule for RSUs is established by the Compensation Committee and generally requires vesting 25% annually over four years. The vesting schedule for PSUs is also established by the Compensation Committee and currently requires vesting over four fiscal years, if at all, based on relative performance. For each share granted as a full value award under the 2000 Plan, an equivalent of 2.5 shares is deducted from our pool of shares available for grant. As of May 31, 2015, the 2000 Plan had stock options to purchase 401 million shares of common stock outstanding of which 215 million shares were vested, 24 million unvested RSUs outstanding and 3 million unvested PSUs outstanding. As of May 31, 2015, approximately 409 million shares of common stock were available for future awards under the 2000 Plan. To date, we have not issued any stock purchase rights or stock appreciation rights under the 2000 Plan. In fiscal 1993, the Board adopted the 1993 Directors’ Stock Plan (the Directors’ Plan), which provides for the issuance of non-qualified stock options and other stock-based awards, including RSUs, to non-employee directors. The Directors’ Plan has from time to time been amended and restated. Under the terms of the Directors’ Plan, 10 million shares of common stock are reserved for issuance (including a fiscal 2013 amendment to increase the number of shares of our common stock reserved for issuance by 2 million shares). Options are granted at not less than fair market value, vest over four years, and expire no more than ten years from the date of grant. RSUs granted under the Directors’ Plan also vest over four years. The Directors’ Plan provides for automatic grants of stock awards to each non-employee director upon first becoming a director and thereafter on an annual basis, as well as automatic nondiscretionary grants for chairing or vice chairing certain Board committees. The Board will determine the particular terms of any such stock awards at the time of grant, but the terms will be consistent with those of stock awards granted under the Directors’ Plan with respect to vesting or forfeiture schedules and treatment on termination of status as a director. As of May 31, 2015, options to purchase approximately 4 million shares of common stock (of which approximately 2 million were vested) and 64,000 unvested RSUs were outstanding under the 1993 Directors’ Plan. As of May 31, 2015, approximately 2 million shares were available for future stock awards under this plan. In connection with certain of our acquisitions, we assumed certain outstanding stock options and other restricted stock-based awards under each acquired company’s respective stock plans. These stock options and other restricted stock-based awards generally retain all of the rights, terms and conditions of the respective plans under which they were originally granted. As of May 31, 2015, stock options to purchase 8 million shares of common stock and 1 million shares of restricted stock-based awards were outstanding under these plans. The following table summarizes stock option activity and includes awards granted pursuant to Oracle-based stock plans and stock plans assumed from our acquisitions for our last three fiscal years ended May 31, 2015:
|  | Options Outstanding
(in millions, except exercise price) |  | Shares Under Option |  | Weighted
Average
Exercise Price
Balance, May 31, 2012 |  | 422 |  | $ | 22.66
Granted |  | 119 |  | $ | 29.90
Assumed |  | 9 |  | $ | 32.52
Exercised |  | (83) |  | $ | 17.38
Canceled |  | (20) |  | $ | 28.94
Balance, May 31, 2013 |  | 447 |  | $ | 25.48
Granted |  | 131 |  | $ | 31.02
Assumed |  | 5 |  | $ | 9.02
Exercised |  | (95) |  | $ | 21.51
Canceled |  | (26) |  | $ | 30.60
Balance, May 31, 2014 |  | 462 |  | $ | 27.37
Granted |  | 34 |  | $ | 40.54
Assumed |  | 3 |  | $ | 21.98
Exercised |  | (70) |  | $ | 24.49
Canceled |  | (16) |  | $ | 33.76
Balance, May 31, 2015 |  | 413 |  | $ | 28.64
Options outstanding that have vested and that are expected to vest as of May 31, 2015 were as follows:
|  | Outstanding Options (in millions) |  | Weighted |  | Weighted Average Remaining Contract Term (in years) |  | In-the-Money Options as of May 31, 2015 (in millions) |  | Aggregate Intrinsic Value(1) (in millions)
Average
Exercise
Price
Vested |  | 223 |  | $ | 25.53 |  | 5.07 |  | 222 |  | $ | 4,034
Expected to vest(2) |  | 175 |  | $ | 32.17 |  | 7.77 |  | 175 |  |  | 1,986
Total |  | 398 |  | $ | 28.45 |  | 6.26 |  | 397 |  | $ | 6,020
__________
(1) | The aggregate intrinsic value was calculated based on the gross difference between our closing stock price on the last trading day of fiscal 2015 of $43.49 and the exercise prices for all “in-the-money” options outstanding, excluding tax effects.
(2) | The unrecognized compensation expense calculated under the fair value method for shares expected to vest (unvested shares net of expected forfeitures) as of May 31, 2015 was approximately $804 million and is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 2.16 years. Approximately 15 million shares outstanding as of May 31, 2015 were not expected to vest.
Restricted stock-based award activity and the number of shares outstanding was not significant prior to fiscal 2015. The following table summarizes restricted stock-based awards activity including service-based awards and performance-based awards and includes awards granted pursuant to Oracle-based stock plans and stock plans assumed from our acquisitions, for our year ended May 31, 2015:
|  | Restricted Stock-Based Awards Outstanding
(in millions, except fair value) |  | Number of Shares |  | Weighted Average Grant Date Fair Value
Balance, May 31, 2014 |  | 1 |  | $ | 35.29
Granted |  | 28 |  | $ | 40.73
Canceled |  | (1) |  | $ | 39.52
Balance, May 31, 2015 |  | 28 |  | $ | 40.63
The total grant date fair value of restricted stock-based awards that vested in fiscal 2015 was $28 million. As of May 31, 2015, total unrecognized stock compensation expense related to non-vested restricted stock-based awards was $774 million and is expected to be recognized over the remaining weighted-average vesting period of 3.22 years. In fiscal 2015, 3 million PSUs were granted which vest upon the attainment of certain performance metrics and service-based vesting. Based upon actual attainment relative to the “target” performance metric, certain participants have the ability to be issued up to 150% of the target number of PSUs originally granted, or to be issued no PSUs at all. As of May 31, 2015, no PSUs had vested and 3 million remained outstanding. Stock-Based Compensation Expense and Valuation of Stock Awards We estimated the fair values of our stock options using the Black-Scholes-Merton option-pricing model, which was developed for use in estimating the fair values of stock options. Option valuation models, including the Black-Scholes-Merton option-pricing model, require the input of assumptions, including stock price volatility. Changes in the input assumptions can materially affect the fair value estimates and ultimately how much we recognize as stock-based compensation expense. The fair values of our stock options were estimated at the grant dates or at the acquisition dates for options assumed in a business combination. The weighted average input assumptions used and resulting fair values of our stock options were as follows for fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013:
|  | Year Ended May 31,
|  | 2015 |  | 2014 |  | 2013
Expected life (in years) |  |  | 5.1 |  |  | 4.9 |  |  | 5.0
Risk-free interest rate |  |  | 1.7% |  |  | 1.3% |  |  | 0.7%
Volatility |  |  | 23% |  |  | 27% |  |  | 31%
Dividend yield |  |  | 1.2% |  |  | 1.5% |  |  | 0.8%
Weighted-average fair value per share |  | $ | 9.62 |  | $ | 7.47 |  | $ | 7.99
The expected life input is based on historical exercise patterns and post-vesting termination behavior, the risk-free interest rate input is based on U.S. Treasury instruments, the annualized dividend yield input is based on the per share dividend declared by our Board of Directors and the volatility input is calculated based on the implied volatility of our publicly traded options. We estimated the fair values of our restricted stock-based awards that are solely subject to service-based vesting requirements based upon their intrinsic values as of the grant dates. The fair values of our PSUs were also measured at their intrinsic values as of their respective grant dates. The vesting conditions and related terms of our PSUs were communicated to each participating employee as of their respective grant dates and included attainment metrics that were defined, fixed, and based upon consistent U.S. GAAP metrics or internal metrics that are defined, fixed and consistently determined, and that require the employee to render service. Therefore, these awards meet the performance-based award classification criteria as defined within ASC 718. Stock-based compensation is included in the following operating expense line items in our consolidated statements of operations:
|  | Year Ended May 31,
(in millions) |  | 2015 |  | 2014 |  | 2013
Sales and marketing |  | $ | 180 |  | $ | 165 |  | $ | 137
Cloud software as a service and platform as a service |  |  | 10 |  |  | 8 |  |  | 10
Cloud infrastructure as a service |  |  | 5 |  |  | 4 |  |  | 8
Software license updates and product support |  |  | 21 |  |  | 22 |  |  | 20
Hardware systems products |  |  | 6 |  |  | 5 |  |  | 3
Hardware systems support |  |  | 6 |  |  | 6 |  |  | 5
Services |  |  | 30 |  |  | 29 |  |  | 23
Research and development |  |  | 522 |  |  | 385 |  |  | 352
General and administrative |  |  | 148 |  |  | 171 |  |  | 164
Acquisition related and other |  |  | 5 |  |  | 10 |  |  | 33
Total stock-based compensation |  |  | 933 |  |  | 805 |  |  | 755
Estimated income tax benefit included in provision for income taxes |  |  | (294) |  |  | (260) |  |  | (243)
Total stock-based compensation, net of estimated income tax benefit |  | $ | 639 |  | $ | 545 |  | $ | 512
Tax Benefits from Exercise of Stock Options and Vesting of Restricted Stock-Based Awards Total cash received as a result of option exercises was approximately $1.7 billion, $2.0 billion and $1.4 billion for fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The aggregate intrinsic value of options exercised and vesting of restricted stock-based awards was $1.3 billion, $1.5 billion and $1.3 billion for fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. In connection with these exercises and vesting of restricted stock-based awards, the tax benefits realized by us were $396 million, $480 million and $410 million for fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Of the total tax benefits received, we classified excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation of $244 million, $250 million and $241 million as cash flows from financing activities rather than cash flows from operating activities for fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. Employee Stock Purchase Plan We have an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (Purchase Plan) that allows employees to purchase shares of common stock at a price per share that is 95% of the fair market value of Oracle stock as of the end of the semi-annual option period. As of May 31, 2015, 57 million shares were reserved for future issuances under the Purchase Plan. We issued 3 million shares under the Purchase Plan in each of fiscal 2015, fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2013. Defined Contribution and Other Postretirement Plans We offer various defined contribution plans for our U.S. and non-U.S. employees. Total defined contribution plan expense was $362 million, $357 million and $353 million for fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The number of plan participants in our benefit plans has generally increased in recent years primarily as a result of additional eligible employees from our acquisitions. In the United States, regular employees can participate in the Oracle Corporation 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan (Oracle 401(k) Plan). Participants can generally contribute up to 40% of their eligible compensation on a per-pay-period basis as defined by the Oracle 401(k) Plan document or by the section 402(g) limit as defined by the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS). We match a portion of employee contributions, currently 50% up to 6% of compensation each pay period, subject to maximum aggregate matching amounts. Our contributions to the Oracle 401(k) Plan, net of forfeitures, were $144 million, $134 million and $129 million in fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. We also offer non-qualified deferred compensation plans to certain key employees whereby they may defer a portion of their annual base and/or variable compensation until retirement or a date specified by the employee in accordance with the plans. Deferred compensation plan assets and liabilities were each approximately $408 million as of May 31, 2015 and were each approximately $367 million as of May 31, 2014 and were presented in other assets and other non-current liabilities in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. We sponsor certain defined benefit pension plans that are offered primarily by certain of our foreign subsidiaries. Many of these plans were assumed through our acquisitions or are required by local regulatory requirements. We may deposit funds for these plans with insurance companies, third party trustees, or into government-managed accounts consistent with local regulatory requirements, as applicable. Our total defined benefit plan pension expenses were $69 million, $64 million and $81 million for fiscal 2015, 2014 and 2013, respectively. The aggregate projected benefit obligation and aggregate net liability (funded status) of our defined benefit plans as of May 31, 2015 was $1.0 billion and $599 million, respectively, and as of May 31, 2014 was $853 million and $436 million, respectively.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for compensation costs, including compensated absences accruals, compensated absences liability, deferred compensation arrangements and income statement compensation items. Deferred compensation arrangements may include a description of an arrangement with an individual employee, which is generally an employment contract between the entity and a selected officer or key employee containing a promise by the employer to pay certain amounts at designated future dates, usually including a period after retirement, upon compliance with stipulated requirements. This type of arrangement is distinguished from broader based employee benefit plans as it is usually tailored to the employee. Disclosure also typically includes the amount of related compensation expense recognized during the reporting period, the number of shares (units) issued during the period under such arrangements, and the carrying amount as of the balance sheet date of the related liability. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 715 -SubTopic 70 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6414718&loc=d3e28014-114942 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 718 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 2 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6415400&loc=d3e5070-113901 Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 715 -SubTopic 20 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=35743120&loc=d3e1928-114920 Reference 4: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 718 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 1 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6415400&loc=d3e5047-113901 Reference 5: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 718 -SubTopic 10 -Section S99 -Paragraph 1 -Subparagraph (SAB TOPIC 14.F) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=27013229&loc=d3e301413-122809 + Details
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