Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Minding Your Business: Microsoft Waves Good-bye to Stock Options
Aired July 09, 2003 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Microsoft puts the brakes on stock options. Is it the end of a golden era?
Andy Serwer is out today, but Gerri Willis is here "Minding Your Business."
Hey, good morning. Nice to see you.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad. Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Obviously stock options are the big way that people were getting paid and being made into the multimillionaires years back at Microsoft. Now, why did they change the policy?
WILLIS: Well, say good-bye to stock options. A lot of companies are probably going to have to expense those stock options. They're getting rid of the programs. What's more, a lot of employees, their stock options are under water, they're worthless.
So now, Microsoft is actually going to offer restricted stock. Now, the good news is restricted stock always has value. The bad news is it's not going to make you wealthy overnight like the Microsoft stock options did.
Keep in mind, back in 1999 fully a third of Microsoft employees were millionaires from these stock options. So, without an aggressive market here, I think for a lot of people, restricted stock probably makes a lot more sense.
O'BRIEN: So, is this something that was coming from pressure from the employees? Or was there sort of outward pressure being put on Microsoft? And do you think other companies are going to follow suit?
WILLIS: Well, probably both, probably inside and outside. You know, a lot of discussion about changing the rules and regulations around stock options, and now Cisco and Intel this morning say they will not follow suit. But the experts say look for a big pile-on.
O'BRIEN: What about other companies that are not technology companies, but, you know, regular sort of standard companies, do you think that they'll do the same thing? Because many of these companies offer stock options as well to their employees. If the other tech companies aren't going to follow suit, will other companies? WILLIS: I think so. I think you're going to see a piling on, like I said, regardless of sector really. Tech has been the big way people have been paid, but other companies as well have already started doing this.
O'BRIEN: Any other information for us on the market this morning?
WILLIS: Well, we're looking at a lower open. You know, yesterday, the Nasdaq actually came back a little bit again after that huge rally Monday, but it's not looking so good today.
O'BRIEN: Gerri, that's not what we want to hear, but thanks. Nice talking to you as always. Well check in with you a little bit later.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Options>
Aired July 9, 2003 - 07:45 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Microsoft puts the brakes on stock options. Is it the end of a golden era?
Andy Serwer is out today, but Gerri Willis is here "Minding Your Business."
Hey, good morning. Nice to see you.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad. Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Obviously stock options are the big way that people were getting paid and being made into the multimillionaires years back at Microsoft. Now, why did they change the policy?
WILLIS: Well, say good-bye to stock options. A lot of companies are probably going to have to expense those stock options. They're getting rid of the programs. What's more, a lot of employees, their stock options are under water, they're worthless.
So now, Microsoft is actually going to offer restricted stock. Now, the good news is restricted stock always has value. The bad news is it's not going to make you wealthy overnight like the Microsoft stock options did.
Keep in mind, back in 1999 fully a third of Microsoft employees were millionaires from these stock options. So, without an aggressive market here, I think for a lot of people, restricted stock probably makes a lot more sense.
O'BRIEN: So, is this something that was coming from pressure from the employees? Or was there sort of outward pressure being put on Microsoft? And do you think other companies are going to follow suit?
WILLIS: Well, probably both, probably inside and outside. You know, a lot of discussion about changing the rules and regulations around stock options, and now Cisco and Intel this morning say they will not follow suit. But the experts say look for a big pile-on.
O'BRIEN: What about other companies that are not technology companies, but, you know, regular sort of standard companies, do you think that they'll do the same thing? Because many of these companies offer stock options as well to their employees. If the other tech companies aren't going to follow suit, will other companies? WILLIS: I think so. I think you're going to see a piling on, like I said, regardless of sector really. Tech has been the big way people have been paid, but other companies as well have already started doing this.
O'BRIEN: Any other information for us on the market this morning?
WILLIS: Well, we're looking at a lower open. You know, yesterday, the Nasdaq actually came back a little bit again after that huge rally Monday, but it's not looking so good today.
O'BRIEN: Gerri, that's not what we want to hear, but thanks. Nice talking to you as always. Well check in with you a little bit later.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Options>
