RE: How many worthless stock options do yo

[david -dot- locke -at- amd -dot- com]

Stock options as a gift or frosting was one of those attitudes that drives
me nuts. It lets the executives off the hook for their lousy management. If
they can convince you that you are getting stock options, because of their
benevolence, then you don't mind if they do something stupid that sinks the
company. You keep on working there until the very end. If everybody got up
from their desks and walked the first time management lost credibility, the
company would die, and the management would retire. Bad managers would be
eliminated from the gene pool as it were. 

Stock options are not a gift. They are income deferral. The company really
can't afford to pay you with real money, so they use "Other People's Money."
The company that tries to use their own money is invariably going to go out
of business before their product goes out the door. Been there. 

Why would you work for a company that wasn't going to succeed? Sure I
wouldn't take stock options in a company that was going to fail. But, then,
I wouldn't work there for salary either. If the executives convince me that
they can't run the company and make it successful, I really don't want to
listen to their endlessly cheerleading and self-congratulating bull. 

Don't buy into the hype. Ask questions about that tell you how they think
about business. If it doesn't sound right, then it isn't. Move on. Don't
take the first thing that comes along, and do whatever it takes, so that you
don't have to. Every time I ever had to take a job, I regretted it later. 

As far as the rebound of the dot coms, the dot coms affect all software
segments. When the dot coms got hot, money for non-Internet software vendors
dried up. Money is being taken out of all tech segments. The money is going
back to the cash cow industrials where most of it came from. The new economy
is being gutted, so more money can be placed in safe old economy
investments. 

Yes, my comments will always be focused on software vendors. I don't want to
work anywhere else. 

David


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