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To: stevenallen who wrote (63811)	7/31/2002 7:25:45 AM
From: DebtBomb	Respond to of 208838

Nice list steven.

To: stevenallen who wrote (63811)	8/4/2002 3:11:48 PM
From: Dave Gore	Respond to of 208838

Steve, superb info on options expensing. Just read it. Personally I don't think it will be made a requirement. But companies like GE and others who WON'T get hurt much are smartly volunteering to expense them and put pressure on those who aren't. Will this go away like asbestos fears did in a while? That will be interesting to see. I'd also like to see a further breakdown on how close to exercise price the options are. Apple may be #2, but what if the exercise price is $40, far out of the money, for instance? We need much more detailed breakdowns of info than what CNN gave. I hope it happens. ** <Who'll take the biggest hit if options are expensed? This is an excerpt from a CNN piece from last week - According to a recent study, Merrill Lynch found that if options were treated as an expense, total earnings for S&P 500 companies would have been 21 percent lower in 2001 than what was reported. Earnings in 2000 would be 8 percent lower. Earnings this year would be 10 percent lower.>

To: stevenallen who wrote (63811)	8/5/2002 5:48:40 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 208838

Silicon Valley CFOs busy cooking up "refried beans " ;-) Alan T. Saracevic Sunday, August 4, 2002 sfgate.com When the wind is just right, you can smell it wafting over the paved serenity of Silicon Valley. It's not quite a barbecue scent. More like a clam bake. Or maybe refried beans. You see, it's white-knuckle time for corporate America. And the accountants are busy in the kitchen. By Aug. 14, the top brass at our 947 largest public companies have to personally vouch for the veracity of their earnings statements. Harvey Pitt says so. One can only imagine the scramble in the big biz bunkers, where pro forma flambe has become a favorite dish over the past few years. CEOs yelling at CFOs. CFOs chewing out CPAs. CPAs kicking their dogs. Dogs chasing cats. It's a vicious chain, and it's only going to get worse in the next 10 days. Expect to see a rash of restatements, excuses and sidestepping in the next few days as executives try to swallow what they've been shoveling to the public. And that could trigger some selling on Wall Street. I can't imagine there's much appetite for tech issues until it's clear who's signing on the SEC's dotted line. So far, Oracle's Larry Ellison is the only big name in the valley to sign, publicly standing by his numbers. (Bigger question: Where was Larry when Dennis Conner's yacht sank last week?) Elsewhere along Highway 101, the silence has been deafening. Wall Street has a particular interest in Cisco Systems, whose shares sank nearly 9 percent Thursday on rumors that CEO John Chambers might resign rather than sign. In a canned statement, the company assured investors that Chambers and his CFO, Larry Carter, stand behind their books. Methinks investors would have preferred reassurances directly from Chambers. The Street rolled its eyes and sent the shares down another 2 percent Friday. Maybe Chambers was busy in the kitchen? I thought I smelled something. $ $ $ Pity the CFOs. Not only is Harvey Pitt pressuring them to vouch for their work, but they're also getting squeezed by their bosses. According to a survey conducted by CFO.com, an online magazine for high- ranking finance types, 17 percent of the chief financial officers queried said they'd been pressured to misrepresent earnings results by their CEOs. Golly. Next thing they'll tell us is that pro forma numbers are hinkey. Er, well . . . that's exactly what the survey told us. "Over half (54 percent) of the 141 respondents say they report pro forma results in quarterly earnings releases, but 18 percent of those that use pro forma don't reconcile those results to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), even though the Securities and Exchange Commission has advised companies to do so." And, in a final shocker, the surveyed CFOs revealed that tech companies sometimes lie about "being the world's leading provider of back-end enterprise solutions." I just don't know what to believe anymore.