Out of options

摘要

Only yesterday stock options seemed to be a sort of corporate wonder-drug, doing to businessmen what steroids do to weightlifters: dose up your executives, and watch your profits grow. Now, as with steroids, everyone is more concerned about the nasty side-effects, which can include jail time for executives who backdate them to give them more oomph. One thing that prosecutors have so far failed satisfactorily to explain is why so many executives engaged in backdating, which was done so openly and widely in Silicon Valley that it is hard to believe anyone thought they were committing arncrime. Even Steve Jobs, the iconic boss of Apple, did it-though, unlike' dozens of other executives, he has not (so far) had his collar felt by the authorities.