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To: Saturn V who wrote (165236)	5/17/2002 4:45:52 PM
From: greg s	Respond to of 186894

re; Stock Options have been the great fuel of the high tech revolution of the last 35 years. The detractors of the options have never benefited from options. The Stock Option detractors have the thinking which is more relevant to smoke stack industries. AMEN, Saturn, AMEN! greg

To: Saturn V who wrote (165236)	5/17/2002 4:53:04 PM
From: semiconeng	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

The discussion about options can only be understood by people who had options in the high tech business. Options are a much better motivational tool even though high tech companies use both. One more thing, I'm not sure if this is the way it is in all companies, but when my company had a "Stock Split", the "number" of all unexcercised option shares doubled, and the Option price was cut in half. So for example, if I had 300 shares of options excercisable at $14.00 a share pre-split, after the split I had 600 Options @ $7.00 a share. Made tons of money on that one..... Semi

To: Saturn V who wrote (165236)	5/18/2002 12:09:23 AM
From: kapkan4u	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

<The detractors of the options have never benefited from options. The Stock Option detractors have the thinking which is more relevant to smoke stack industries.> I retired on stock options, but still think that they are a scam designed to transfer wealth from shareholders to management. Kap

To: Saturn V who wrote (165236)	5/18/2002 2:03:29 AM
From: BelowTheCrowd	Respond to of 186894

> Stock Options have been the great fuel of the high tech revolution of the last 35 years. The detractors of the options have never benefited from options. The Stock Option detractors have the thinking which is more relevant to smoke stack industries. < Strongly disagree. I've been the beneficiary of stock options, and think they're a useful tool. I'm also a shareholder, and strongly disagree with the premise that they should not be accounted for or resported to shareholders. Fact is, they are an expense. They are something that the company gives away to employees which reduces the holdings of their shareholders. They should be accounted for as such. Will this kind of accounting treatment reduce incentive to give out options as opposed to other types of incentive structures? I think that it will. Do I expect options will still exist? Yes I do, if for no better reason than that small and growing companies will still find them to be a more compelling and more cost-effective structure than other alternatives. Intel has been one of the few companies that, to my mind, has managed its options program well. At most companies it's been used primarily to give a huge bonus to executives while providing a tax break for the company, all at the expense of common shareholders. Personally I hope to be in a position to benefit from option grants in the future, but don't expect that they should be treated differently from any other form of compensation. Those who take on great risk to join small growing firms will continue to demand the possibility of great rewards and will most likely get it. Those who work in stable, more slowly growing firms may find that the "risk premium" they are given in the form of options will be greatly diminished. I think that's fair to all concerned. I recall at one of the quarterly briefings some years ago, Andy Bryant was asked about the proposal to change the accounting treatment of options. It had been on the table at the time (as it has been every few years for the past decade) and was something people were interested in. His comment was more-or-less that "We will still give people options, even if the accounting treatment changes. We think they are a good thing and a good incentive as well as a good reward. However, a change in accounting treatment will force us to reconsider what mix of incentive structures we choose to offer and may result in reduced use of options as opposed to other kinds of rewards." It didn't sound disastrous to me at the time and still doesn't. As somebody else pointed out, the companies that need options the most -- small, cash-strapped startups with no income -- won't be impacted much by this change. The big impact will be on larger, well established firms which have many other tools at their disposal. mg

To: Saturn V who wrote (165236)	5/20/2002 8:13:05 AM
From: GVTucker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

Saturn V, RE: The detractors of the options have never benefited from options. The Stock Option detractors have the thinking which is more relevant to smoke stack industries. Hopefully you'll recognize that this is an opinion and not a fact. And it is an opinion that I disagree with. I'm not going to presume that I know the mindset of people that advocate the use of stock options as compensation. Stock options do indeed have a valuable use as part of an employee's compensation package. But I'd just as soon not subsidize the companies that use these options at the expense of those that do not.