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Technology Stocks : Siebel Systems (SEBL) - strong buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (5994)	6/11/2002 1:21:18 AM
From: Kevin Rose	Respond to of 6974

Good points. Btw: it's the same with the AMT. Originally meant to 'soak the rich', it has devasted a good number of families this past year. People were exercising their options at high prices, assuming that the stock would go up or at least stay the same. When they crashed, people didn't realize that the AMT bill was going to wipe them out. I've never heard of a Tom or Larry getting wiped out by AMT, but I know a number of real people who have been.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (5994)	6/11/2002 3:24:37 AM
From: hueyone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6974

they think they're getting Tom or Larry and really all they're doing is hurting some mid-level engineers. I think some CEOs would likely be a much more important target from the shareholders perspective than the rank and file if the Levin/McCain bill were passed. The huge wad of expenses all residing at one place in some CEO's laps is too compelling a target. For example, expensing the value of Tom's exercised stock options alone last year reduces SEBL's GAAP after tax income from 255M to 144M. Had Tom's stock options been expensed on the income statement, Tom would have had to stand up at last week's shareholder meeting and explain why he was making 175M for running a company that was only earning 144M. This might even be a tough sell for Mr. Siebel. Looking at the situation another way, were Tom to simply cut his pay in half, company earnings would increase from 144M to 199M, a whopping 38% increase. This dramatic improvement in earnings would be perceived as simply too big an impact for either shareholders or Mr. Siebel to ignore if we have accounting for stock options. While I am sure the stock options for rank and file are very significant in aggregate, I would guess the level of stock options for rank and file may be able to fly under the radar of activist shareholders more easily than the extravagant levels of stock options for CEOs and upper level execs would. JMO, Huey