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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard Gibbons who wrote (46675)	2/11/1999 10:35:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 132070

Richard, I don't know you, so I could be wrong, but my guess is you are not the CEO of a large co. But for the top dogs, most option schemes are run to reward them for delivering the goods. That used to mean fundamental measures, but, now, it mostly means getting the stock up. They do not have long vesting periods. Also, unless the co. is brand new, even with vesting periods, most are in the position of having a ton ready for sale. It is also important to note that how many options a top dog gets depends upon how well he does. Thus, you see stuff like Compaq pulling all sorts of tricks to make a flat quarter for year end so that the top guys could get more options and sell out the stock they have at top price. IBM, you see the CEO excersising options with a 2003 expiration date. Say, what???? And you see every insider at Dell doing whatever they could to pretend that last quarter was good so they could then sell at ah all-time high for the stock. Some of these guys don't realize that their short term fakery damages the cos. longer term. But many do, and they are cynically taking advantage of shareholders. In the end, it doesn't matter if they are crooked are just stupid: the shareholder is left with no book value and little cash when the fit hits the shan. The top execs are left with yachts the size of a Great Lake. <G> BTW, I also was given options at the last place where I worked. They vested in six months. So, I think your 4 year bit is an exception, not the rule. BTW, the best options plan I've seen is at Monsanto, which is why we don't see a scamarama from them every quarter. MB