Well, the reason for setting the exercise price at $1.69 was because that was the closing price on Mar 2,2011 and it looked quite attractive at the time. In fact, the price went up from there after Mar 2.

Not only that, on the year end financial statements, these $1.69 options were deemed to have a value of $1.78 M (recorded as option based compensation) or approx. $1 a share; in other words, management (and the auditor) felt the fair value of these options is approx. $2.69 a share ($1.69 + $1)! It's amazing how time has changed and we are trading at $0.79!