Google has repriced 7.64 million stock options that had become less likely to enrich its employees given the sharp decline in the Internet search leader’s market value during the past 16 months, The Associated Press said.

The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., said in a Tuesday regulatory filing that 15,642 workers seized on the opportunity to wipe the slate clean by getting stock options with a lower exercise price that reduced their cost for redeeming the reward. Google has 20,200 employees. The
repricing program expired Monday morning.

The replacement options were all priced at $308.57, mirroring Google’s closing stock price at the end of last week. The company’s stock price rose $17.28, or nearly 6 percent, to close Tuesday at $308.17.

Employees profit from options by cashing in on the difference between the exercise price and a stock’s market price, so a lower exercise price increases the likelihood of a windfall.

More than 6 million of the options eligible for the exchange program had original exercise prices above $500, meaning the employees holding those couldn’t make money on them unless Google’s stock staged a dramatic rally. Like the overall stock market, Google shares have been hard hit since peaking at $747 in November 2007.

Millions of other Google stock options still had exercise prices below $300, giving employees who held those options no reason to participate in the repricing.

Google said nearly 93 percent of all stock options with exercise prices above $308.57 were exchanged.

Although the company framed the repricing as a way motivate and retain employees, the program irked some shareholders who are still stuck with big losses on their investments.

The repricing is expected to result in at least $400 million in accounting charges during the next five years.