Find Your Resource

The European Commission is looking into stock purchase plans that offer incentives for employees to set aside monthly deferrals to invest in the shares of their employers.

Articles and commentary about different forms of employee ownership appeared in a variety of media outlets in recent days. Some highlights of the coverage include:

There are several empirical studies of the impact of options expensing. The most comprehensive appears to be "Employee Stock Options, Residual Income Valuation and Stock Price Reaction to SFAS Footnote Disclosures," by Haidan Li at the University of Iowa (ERN Labor Journals, December 19, 2002).

Data on the extent and effectiveness of broad-based equity plans in closely held companies are scarce and based on samples too limited to be persuasive, but we recently came across one significant exception. In "Give Everyone a Prize?

An analysis by Credit Suisse of the 236 S&P 500 companies for which First Call included consensus analyst estimates of the impact of options expensing on share prices found that for most companies, the impact was small and short-lived, but for the 47 where it was "material" (causing a decline

A 1997 study by Theresa Welbourn at Cornell University has found that companies that do an initial public offering and offer stock ownership to most or all employees are more likely to survive than companies with narrower ownership.

An October study by Thomas Weisel Partners, an investment banking firm, found that 53% of sell-side analysts use only non-GAAP reporting in their analyses of 50 leading technology companies. All but one of the companies provide non-GAAP statements.

Both the House and Senate versions of the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1997 contain provisions affecting employee ownership law.

The Act corrects a number of defects in the 1996 tax act's provisions concerning subchapter S corporations and ESOPs. The previous law allowed employee benefit plan trusts to hold stock in an S corporation starting in 1998, but, as structured, made it impractical to do so.

If you or someone you know is interested in serving on our board of directors, please submit a nomination before the close of business on December 14.