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Stock-Based Compensation and Stock Options | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2023
Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract] |
Stock-Based Compensation and Stock Options | Stock-Based Compensation and Stock Options The Company accounts for its employee stock options under the fair value method, which requires stock-based compensation to be estimated using the fair value on the date of grant, employing an option-pricing model. The value of the portion of awards expected to vest is recognized on a straight-line basis as expense over the related employees’ requisite service periods in the Company’s consolidated statements of operations. On May 29, 2020, the shareholders of the Company approved certain amendments to the Bartel Option Agreements, which increased and repriced all outstanding, unexercised options granted to Mr. Holger Bartel (the “Option Agreement Amendments”). Pursuant to the Option Agreement Amendments and subject to shareholder approval, the exercise price for the options was repriced to the official NASDAQ closing share price on March 30, 2020 (the date of execution of the Option Agreement Amendments, which immediately followed the date of approval of the grants from the Board of Directors of the Company), which was $3.49. Additionally, the Option Agreement Amendments made the following increases: (a) 400,000 additional options to purchase the Company’s common stock pursuant to the 2015 Option Agreement, (b) 150,000 additional options to purchase the Company’s common stock pursuant to the 2017 Option Agreement, and (c) 400,000 additional options to purchase the Company’s common stock pursuant to the 2019 Option Agreement, which resulted in a total of 1,900,000 options granted to Mr. Bartel pursuant to the Option Agreement Amendments. Mr. Bartel’s amended options pursuant to the 2015 Option Agreement and the 2017 Option Agreement were fully vested upon the execution of the applicable Option Agreement Amendment. Therefore, stock-based compensation related to these options was fully expensed in the second quarter of 2020. In 2021, 800,000 options granted pursuant to the 2015 Option Agreement, 300,000 options granted pursuant to the 2017 Option Agreement and 260,000 options granted pursuant to the 2019 Option Agreement were exercised by Mr. Bartel, 681,902 shares of common stock were issued as the result of a cashless exercise or net settlement with respect to the option exercise price or taxes which were approved by Travelzoo's Board of Directors. As of December 31, 2021, stock-based compensation related to the 2019 Option Agreement and applicable Option Agreement Amendment was fully expensed. Mr. Bartel exercised the remaining 540,000 options granted pursuant to the 2019 Option Agreement in 2022. The Company received aggregate cash proceeds of $1.9 million. In September 2019, pursuant to executed Option Agreements, the Company granted six employees stock options to purchase 50,000 shares of common stock each (300,000 in the aggregate) with an exercise price of $10.79, of which 75,000 options vest and become exercisable annually starting on September 5, 2020 and ending on December 31, 2023. The options expire in September 2024. On May 29, 2020, the shareholders of the Company approved the grants, as well as certain amendments to the Option Agreements, which increased and repriced all outstanding, unexercised options granted to such employees. Pursuant to the applicable amendments, the exercise price for the options was repriced to the official NASDAQ closing share price on March 30, 2020 (the date of execution of the amendments to the Option Agreements, which immediately followed the date of approval of the grants from the Board of Directors of the Company), which was $3.49, the option grants were each increased to 100,000 each, resulting in 300,000 additional options in the aggregate. In 2020, 100,000 unvested options were forfeited upon an employee's departure, 75,000 options were exercised and 54,258 shares of common stock were issued as the result of a cashless exercise which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. In 2021, 125,000 unvested options were forfeited upon employees’ departure, 150,000 options were exercised and 88,917 shares of common stock were issued as the result of the cashless exercises or net settlement with respect to the option exercise price which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. No option was exercised in 2022. In 2023, 50,000 options were exercised and 18,098 shares of common stock were issued as the result of the cashless exercises or net settlement with respect to the option exercise price which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. As of December 31, 2023, stock-based compensation related to these Option Agreements and applicable Option Agreement Amendments were fully expensed. On May 29, 2020, pursuant to an executed Option Agreement, the shareholders of the Company approved the grant of stock options to purchase 800,000 shares of common stock to Mr. Ralph Bartel, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company at the time, with an exercise price of $3.49 and quarterly vesting beginning June 30, 2020 and ending on March 31, 2022. The options expire in March 2025. This grant was approved at the 2020 Annual Meeting of the shareholders. In 2021, 600,000 options were exercised and 390,809 shares of common stock were issued as the result of the cashless exercises which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. In 2023, 200,000 options were exercised and 121,307 shares of common stock were issued as the result of the cashless exercises which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. As of December 31, 2022, stock-based compensation related to this grant was fully expensed. On May 29, 2020, pursuant to an executed Option Agreement, the shareholders of the Company approved the grant of stock options to purchase 200,000 shares of common stock to two key employees, with an exercise price of $3.49 with annual vesting starting March 30, 2021 a nd ending on March 31, 2024. The options expire in March 2025. In 2021, 50,000 options were exercised and 24,474 shares of common stock were issued as the result of cashless exercises which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. In 2022, 50,000 unvested options were forfeited upon one employee's departure, 25,000 options were exercised and 4,676 shares of common stock were issued as the result of cashless exercise or net settlement with respect to the option exercise price which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. In 2023, 50,000 options were exercised and 16,619 shares of common stock were issued as the result of the cashless exercise which were approved by Travelzoo’s Board of Directors. As of December 31, 2023, there was approximately $25,000 of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense relating to these options. This amount is expected to be recognized over the next 0.3 years. On June 1, 2021, pursuant to a n executed Option Agreement, the shareholders of the Company approved the grant of stock options to purchase 50,000 shares of common stock to one employee, with an exercise price of $9.44, with annual vesting starting January 1, 2022 and ending on January 1, 2025. The options expire in January 2026. As of December 31, 2023, there was approximately $144,000 of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense relating to these options. This amount is expected to be recognized over the next 1.0 year. In March 2022, pursuant to an executed Option Agreement, the Company granted its Global Chief Executive Officer, Holger Bartel, options to purchase 600,000 shares of common stock of the Company, with an exercise price of $8.14 and vesting 25% every six months over two years beginning on June 30, 2022 and ending on December 31, 2023. The options expire in March 2027. This grant was approved at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the shareholders. As of December 31, 2023, stock-based compensation related to this grant was fully expensed. In June 2022, the Company granted an employee options to purchase 100,000 shares of common stock with an exercise price of $6.78 and quarterly vesting beginning on September 30, 2022 and ending on June 30, 2025 with vesting based on both time-based service condition and also performance conditions. However, if the performance targets are not met as of the first date on which the time condition is met, the time condition may be extended by one quarter up to three times. The options expire in June 2027. The Company did not recognize stock-based compensation expense for this grant as the performance targets were not achieved and thus no shares were vested in 2022. As of December 31, 2023, there was approximately $239,000 of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense relating to these options. This amount is expected to be recognized over 1.5 years. In March 2023, the Company granted its General Counsel and Head of Global Functions, Christina Sindoni Ciocca, options to purchase 200,000 shares of common stock of the Company, with an exercise price of $4.96 and vesting 12.5% every six months over four years beginning on June 30, 2023 and ending on December 31, 2026. This grant was approved at the Annual Meeting of Stockholders held in June 2023. The options expire in March 2025. As of December 31, 2023, there was approximately $417,000 of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense relating to these options. This amount is expected to be recognized over 3.0 years. The Company recorded $1.6 million and $1.8 million of stock-based compensation in general and administrative expenses for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The Company utilizes the Black-Scholes option pricing model to value the stock options, with an expected life as defined under the simplified method, using an average of the contractual term and vesting period of the stock options, and risk-free interest rates based on the U.S. Treasury yield curve in effect at the time of grant. Historical volatility is calculated based upon implied volatility of the Company's historical stock prices. The Company accounts for forfeitures as they occur. The fair value of stock options granted in 2023 and 2022 was estimated using the Black-Scholes option pricing model with the following weighted-average assumptions:
| 2023 |  | 2022
Weighted-average fair value of options granted per share | $ | 2.78 |  |  | $ | 3.00 |
Historical volatility | 75 | % |  | 77 | %
Risk-free interest rate | 4.40 | % |  | 2.85 | %
Dividend yield | — |  |  | — |
Expected life in years | 3.6 |  | 3.2
As of December 31, 2023, there was approximately $824,000 of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense related to outstanding stock options, expected to be recognized over 0.8 years. Option activities during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2023 were as follows:
| Shares |  | Weighted-Average Exercise Price |  | Weighted-Average Remaining Contractual Life |  | Aggregate Intrinsic Value
|  |  |  |  |  |  | (In thousands)
Outstanding at December 31, 2021 | 1,090,000 |  |  | $ | 3.76 |  |  | 2.92 years |  |
Options Granted | 700,000 |  |  | 7.95 |  |  |  |  |
Exercised options | (565,000) |  |  | 3.49 |  |  |  |  |
Options forfeited and canceled | (50,000) |  |  | 3.49 |  |  |  |  |
Outstanding at December 31, 2022 | 1,175,000 |  |  | $ | 6.40 |  |  | 3.38 years |  |
Options Granted | 200,000 |  |  | $ | 4.96 |  |  |  |  |
Exercised options | (325,000) |  |  | $ | 3.49 |  |  |  |  |
Outstanding at December 31, 2023 | 1,050,000 |  |  | $ | 7.02 |  |  | 3.11 years |  | $ | 2,632 |
Exercisable and fully vested at December 31, 2023 | 783,332 |  |  | $ | 7.48 |  |  | 2.97 years |  | $ | 1,610 |
Outstanding at December 31, 2023 and expected to vest thereafter | 266,668 |  |  | $ | 5.70 |  |  | 3.51 years |  | $ | 1,022 |
The aggregate intrinsic values in the table above represent the total pre-tax intrinsic values (the difference between the Company’s closing stock price on the last trading day of the year ended December 31, 2023 and the exercise price, multiplied by the number of in-the-money options) that would have been received by the option holders, had all option holders exercised their options on December 31, 2023. These amounts change based on the fair value of the Company’s stock. The Company’s policy is to issue shares from authorized shares to fulfill stock option exercises. Outstanding options at December 31, 2023 were as follows:
Exercise Price |  | Options Outstanding |  | Options Outstanding Weighted-Average Remaining Contractual Life |  | Weighted-Average Exercise Price |  | Options Outstanding and Exercisable |  | Options Exercisable Weighted-Average Remaining Contractual Life
$ | 3.49 |  |  | 100,000 |  |  | 0.82 years |  | $ | 3.49 |  |  | 75,000 |  |  | 0.68 years
$ | 4.96 |  |  | 200,000 |  |  | 4.19 years |  | $ | 4.96 |  |  | 50,000 |  |  | 4.19 years
$ | 6.78 |  |  | 100,000 |  |  | 3.42 years |  | $ | 6.78 |  |  | 33,332 |  |  | 3.42 years
$ | 8.14 |  |  | 600,000 |  |  | 3.17 years |  | $ | 8.14 |  |  | 600,000 |  |  | 3.17 years
$ | 9.44 |  |  | 50,000 |  |  | 2.01 years |  | $ | 9.44 |  |  | 25,000 |  |  | 2.01 years

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