>Options string me along over a 4 to 5 year period. It also orients my loyalties. If the company is doing well, I do well. We are aligned. That is the real value of options. <
mindmeld,
There are two different points being made here by CTC and others - first, using options as a compensation tool hides the real cost of doing business (employee compensation) and second, repricing options breaks the premise of alignment that you pointed out.
If you think that options are a useful tool as an incentive, the cost associated with them should be accounted for (for example, the open market cost of those options) as expense to the company. That's what CTC and I've talked about before.
Secondly, once a company grants options to employees (which, by the way, happens every year) it represents an understanding that if the employees perform well, the company will do well, and the stock will do well, which in turn will reward those employees. That's the "incentive" that you mention of "aligning the interests of the employee with the company". Then, if the stock tanks, those options should not be repriced, because then the so called "alignment" is gone.
- Brian. |
