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To: RocketMan who wrote (1833)	1/7/1999 11:22:00 AM
From: Chuzzlewit	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 41369

Rocketman, thank you for your thoughtful reply. You have made me feel much better about this investment. It is not so much what you said (which I agree with for the most part), but the obvious fact that you have thought very hard about the future of this company. I had been getting the impression that the bulk of the people on this thread were momentum investors who spend little or no time evaluating a company. Finding myself in that company gave me little comfort, and much cause for concern. I am not interested in the stock du jour. I am interested in the stock that will provide solid returns for the next 5-10 years. I do not share your view that the granting of stock options is a positive -- quite the opposite. The reason is simple: it is a way that the company can "fund" salaries while at the same time bypassing such niceties as having the cost of the option reflected on an income statement. Beyond that, there is every incentive for an employee to sell the stock immediately upon vesting of the option, because in so doing he avoids AMT. Secondly, there is a sad history of repricing stock options when the price of the stock falls. Companies like IBM, SEG, PSFT, DELL -- all have done this. So, the argument that granting employees stock options in order to insure that they have a continuing and vested interest in maintaining a high stock price is incorrect. Thanks again for taking the time to reply to me. TTFN, CTC