Purposes and value of stock options . . . .
There are a couple of different kinds of stock option plans. I noticed two of them in the recent filing. One is for directors, the other is for employees.
The IDX directors only get a very token payment for meeting four times a year ($1,000 per meeting, I think). Their real payment is in stock options. Now to be about 20,000 shares a year, if I remember right. Considering the importance to the company of a good Board, this doesn't bother me.
I am even less bothered by the idea of IDX employees getting stock options. While we contribute capital through our investments, they are contributing labor. Both groups "capitalize" the company and give it the opportunity to succeed. In Silicon Valley, if you don't provide skilled workers with stock options, you can't really recruit. Further, employee-shareholders are friendlier shareholders who are less likely to sell out in a hostile takeover.
Finally, I speak gratefully from experience that getting stock or stock options as an employee can be a wonderful thing . . . since that is what my father did at JNJ for many, many years. That company was very ahead of its time in treating employees well, and the family is way better off than it would have been had he just gotten an extra monetary bonus.
Higher management, of course, gets more in the way of stock. On the other hand, Fowler's salary and those of the others is very reasonable. I don't have a big problem with this, as long as it is under control -- and I think it is. Take a look at Printrak or NRID if you want to see horror stories on this subject. |
