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Stock options still popular

Stock options still popular
Sept. 11, 2005, 6:39PM
Associated Press

Despite the row over counting stock options as an expense, a survey finds corporate America still favors such options as the cornerstone of executive compensation.

Thirty percent of the companies have already started accounting for their options as expenses to earnings. The accounting rule mandating such a change — which proponents contend offers a truer look at a company's finances — takes effect for fiscal years that began June 15.

Stock option usage slid from 99 percent of the 250 largest public companies in 2003 to 90 percent in 2005, said a study of the larger half of those listed in Standard & Poor's 500 Index.


LINK: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3347585