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Technology Stocks : Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HG who wrote (53831)	6/27/2001 7:50:27 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 77400

I made it extremely clear that it was an example. I specifically said "For example, ..." Can't get any clearer than that. Also, for your info, I have significant holdings in Cisco going back more than 4 years, so I don't have any incentive to bash the company or the stock. However, I have a very big incentive to ferret out potential problems. As far as my two friends, they are certainly representative of what everyone else is experiencing, because I've known both for over 10 years and have always respected their impressive career achievements and motivation. So I definitely classify them as top 10%. If they're not satisfied, that leads me to think the other 90% aren't either. The only caveat in my thinking is that the other 90% may just not understand they aren't getting the same deal that other companies are giving their employees. For example, I also have a friend at Nortel who is a manager. He has survived all cuts so far and what Nortel did to make up for the bad stock downturn is reprice their underwater options. In addition, people at Nortel make market rate salaries, whereas Cisco employees make salaries targeted to the 66th percentile. No matter how you slice it, many other tech companies are giving their employees better deals on options and salaries than Cisco. If I were at Cisco, I'd rather have all my underwater options repriced or exchanged for new ones with a new strike price, than just have received a new regular sized allocation. If you would prefer that Cisco gave you a regular sized allocation, like they did, then you are very altruistic and loyal to your own detriment, or you just don't understand options. My bottomline is that I believe that once upon a time, Cisco was the goose that laid the golden egg for employees. That time is gone. Employees are starting to realize it. When opportunities present themselves elsewhere, there is a real danger to Cisco of losing their best people. That concerns me, because people are everything in high tech. If I think that an exodus will begin, I may weight my holdings much differently than I currently do. Enough said on this subject.