| | HBT--This whole issue is overblown. If options should be expensed when issued, why not also give the company a credit on new patents issued? After all, patents, at least for QCOM, represent a far greater asset than the so-called options liability. I don't see any pressure, political or otherwise, to account for the VALUE of patents. Also, it seems to me that the comments of Warren Buffett are self serving. He thinks companies (particularly the big ones he monitors) should expense them immediately. Well, why not? They're making big profits, and expensing the options merely allows the company to get a 35+% tax deduction, courtesy of the rest of us taxpayers. A far more important issue, particularly for the big, mature dinosauers of companies are the pension plans that assume a far greater return on investment than is actually taking place. Now this hurts big old companies more than small ones. I'm glad Buffett notes this issue, but the options one hurts smaller companies more than larger ones.
As I've said before, as long as a company notes somewhere in the financial report the dilution affect of the options, I don't care if they expense them now or in the future. I just want to know whether the options exist, how many there are, and the expected time they will be exercised.
Art |
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