Carlos, perhaps I have missed your point. However, let me suggest that, had Sun employees not been able to benefit from stock and/or option plans, then direct labor costs to attract, hold, and compensate those same employees might have been higher by an amount similar in magnitude to that of which you complain, and without the beneficial tying of employment compensation to stock price. Furthermore, I think this is pretty standard and accepted practice in business.
Yes, as a stockholder I suppose I'd rather Sun's people would work for free. But I'm not upset that they were paid. I would hardly consider it "robbing the bank." And I'm pretty sure it is a deliberate act, rather than a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
BTW, If we accept your "1bln and counting" as the amount involved, note that (400-368) million sh's * $35/sh = $1.12 Billion, so maybe not that much has been lost?! (Plus I think there were some acquisitions in there.)
JMHO, as always. |
