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

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (63800)	5/4/2003 12:14:52 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Lizzie, compensation schemes for rewarding performance come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Why this unhealthy fascination with options? Do you really believe that there is no better way to compensate and motivate people? I am a believer in employee ownership, but there is more than one way to skin a cat, preferably let's all pick one or two where the costs are accounted for properly in the income statement, so that shareholders don't get screwed.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (63800)	5/4/2003 1:31:52 PM
From: hueyone	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 77400

Come on Lizzie. I don't believe Sebl has even been net profitable with respect to "owner earnings" over the years. The only way you can say Sebl has been good to shareholders as if you happened to have ridden the stock price up during the bubble and sold it to an ignorant fool. You seem to put great merit in a company growing revenues over time, or even simply surviving as I believe is the case with Apple, as opposed to taking a hard look at the company's profitability and determining whether any of this reported profitability is legitimately dropping down to the owner's bottom line. Not too long ago, you said no one can argue with expensing stock options at exercise. When I have time, I will see where doing this puts Siebel's aggregate earnings over the years, but I am quite sure it knocks Sebl in to the negative column. I know JS has done this calculation before, so maybe he will chime in before I have to do this homework (again). Buffet speaks from a shareholder/owner perspective. Shareholder/owners want performance whether they are investing in a tech company or a steel company. Silicon Valley companies are not entitled to a special free pass simply because technology is new and exciting. Regards, Huey