Blyth, Inc. Announces Acceleration of Stock Option Vesting

The Company announced that its board of directors approved the acceleration of the vesting of all outstanding, unvested stock options. All other terms and conditions applicable to such options, including exercise prices, remain unchanged. As a result, options to purchase approximately 350,000 shares became exercisable immediately. Based on Friday’s closing price of $20.11, virtually all of the stock options have an exercise price below fair market value at this time. The company will record an expense of less than $1,000 in the fourth quarter in connection with the accelerated vesting. Due to the acceleration of the company’s existing unvested stock options, no expense recognition will be needed upon adoption of FASB Statement No. 123 in February 2006. Management updated its projections for fiscal year 2006 earnings per share (EPS) and expects EPS to be in the range of $1.41 to $1.46. This estimate includes the effect of the maximum expected $9.8 million fourth quarter tax on the company’s expected repatriation of funds under the American Jobs Creation Act, which is anticipated to lower earnings per share by $0.24. Excluding the effect of the expected tax, fiscal year 2006 EPS is expected to range from $1.65 to $1.70. Cash flow from operations is anticipated to exceed $85 million for the full fiscal year. Capital spending of approximately $15 million is also expected for fiscal year 2006.