The following is a statement from William T. Archey, President and CEO of AeA, in response to FASB's decision to delay implementation of the stock options expensing rule:

Despite thousands of letters it received during the comment period, and despite an alternative valuation model introduced by tech companies, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has completely disregarded the concerns of the high-tech industry once again. 

Simply delaying implementation of the FASB rule for expensing stock options does not address the real issue at hand.  FASB still does not have an accurate method for valuing employee stock options and doesn’t seem interested in finding one.  Otherwise, they would at least be open to some type of thorough field testing as recommended to SEC Chairman William Donaldson by over half of the United States Senate.

Since FASB seems determined to move ahead with its fundamentally flawed proposal, we sincerely hope the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress will intervene to ensure rank-and-file high-tech employees continue receiving stock options.

William T. Archey
President and CEO

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AeA, founded in 1943, is a nationwide trade association that represents all segments of the technology industry and is dedicated solely to helping our members' top line and bottom line. We do this in partnership with our small, medium, and large member companies by lobbying governments at the state, federal, and international levels, providing access to capital and business opportunities, and offering select business services and networking programs. For more information, please visit http://www.aeanet.org.

This page was last updated on 10/18/04.