Microsoft Corp. will likely "moderate" its use of stock options to employees, because they aren't as much of an incentive as some people think, Chairman Bill Gates said yesterday.
"I think it's an exaggeration to say they line up the interests of the stockholder and the option holder," Gates told a conference on innovation in Toronto.
Microsoft is still among the world's biggest issuer of stock options. But the collapse of the high-tech sector has flooded the market with talented employees, so Microsoft is now under less pressure to issue options than it was in the late 1990s. Back then, companies eager to attract employees rewarded them with stock they could buy at set prices, later profiting as prices rose.
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