LOL. Lizzie, mostly I think your posts are useful and well-informed, but I disagree with a couple of your statements in the last post.
First, Cisco just issued 141 million options to employees. That is a huge number, which is not "far fewer options" than have been granted in the past.
Second, I would not call shareholder concerns "childish gripes". Without shareholders, Cisco stock would never rise. That means stock options would be forever worthless. And if shareholder interests are not accounted for by Cisco management, then you may very well see an exodus of investors in Cisco, which will cause the stock to tank and then languish...again ensuring that stock options remain worthless.
Any CEO worth his salt (and I believe Chambers is one of the best) knows that the four pillars of a company include customers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers/partners. Each plays a critical role in the company's health. To ignore one or enrich another at the expense of one of these will inevitably lead to long term problems.
One thing everyone on this thread needs to consider is why is it that these shareholders have been griping for so long? If it really is no big deal, then why won't Cisco expense them? If Cisco wants to build a company of owners not renters, then why won't they distribute outright stock grants instead of options? It puzzles me that this issue is still outstanding. Cisco should have taken this expense along with the big bath they took in early 2001. But no matter. FASB will resolve it for Cisco soon enough. Then all these shareholder gripes will disappear. |
