Equity

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Equity [Abstract]

Stockholders' Equity Note Disclosure [Text Block]

EQUITY

Treasury Shares

In connection with our initial public offering in September 1995, our shareholders authorized our Management Board to repurchase up to 10% of our issued share capital, the maximum allowed under Dutch law at the time, for a period of 18 months. This authorization was renewed at subsequent annual or special shareholder meetings. At our annual shareholders' meeting on May 19, 2011, our shareholders authorized an extension to repurchase up to 10.0% of our issued share capital through November 19, 2012, and an additional 15.6% of our issued shares until March 12, 2012, to fulfill obligations relating to our Exchangeable Notes or warrants. The repurchase of shares in the open market is at the discretion of management pursuant to this shareholder authorization. From the activation of the share repurchase program on October 29, 2002 through December 31, 2011, we have repurchased 33,123,122 shares for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $788.0 million, or an average price of $23.79 per share and have canceled 27,537,600 shares at a cost of $466.2 million. At December 31, 2011, we held 1,408,334 shares in treasury and with the authority to repurchase 11,145,344 additional shares under our stock repurchase program. The past cancellation of shares had also been approved by shareholders at prior shareholder meetings. Subsequent to year end, we have repurchased 10,183 shares at a total cost of approximately $1.1 million.

At the annual meeting of shareholders on May 19, 2011, the shareholders approved the cancellation of 702,106 shares of our common stock then held as treasury shares. These treasury shares were canceled on September 2, 2011, after the expiration of the waiting period required under Dutch law. In accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Codification ("ASC") 505-30-30-8, we charged the excess of the cost of the treasury stock over its par value to additional paid-in capital, and as additional paid-in-capital was not sufficient in amount for this charge the remainder was charged to Retained Earnings.

Dividend Policy

In February, May, August and November 2011, we paid quarterly $0.25 per share of common stock dividends. The total dividends paid in 2011 were $46.0 million. On January 13, 2012, we declared a quarterly dividend of $0.28 per share of common stock payable February 24, 2012 to shareholders of record on January 24, 2012.

Warrants

In 2006, we sold warrants on our common shares, with an initial 20-day settlement period beginning in December 2011 through January 2012. The warrant agreement called for the net value of these warrants to be settled with Core Laboratories N.V. common shares. During 2011, the settlement of all of the warrants was accelerated through a series of agreements with the holder of the warrants. The warrants were settled in four substantially equal 20-day tranches during May, June, August and September of 2011. In each of the four tranches, the exercise price was adjusted based on the daily volume weighted average price of our common stock. These agreements also gave us the option of settling in either cash or our common stock. During the year ended December 31, 2011, we settled 6.6 million warrants at an average exercise price of $59.84 for $219.5 million in cash and 706,395 shares of our treasury stock.