One better understands companies when financial drivers are understood. Therefore, my eye was caught by the Blue Sky blog’s link to an article about a history of stock options by a knowledgeable author. The author is Joseph Bachelder, a compensation lawyer at McCarter & English. The introduction to the article explains:
“Stock options have been a part of executive pay at major U.S. corporations for approximately 100 years. They have had an important role for approximately 70 years, starting in the 1950s. They have gone through periods of extraordinary popularity (e.g., the 1990s) and have been less popular during periods when the stock markets were in the doldrums. They survived the change in accounting rules (2006) that now require them to be a charge against earnings. This post examines this history and takes a look at where options are today.”