Options accounting Ugly and confusing

The SEC appears ready to bow to corporate pressure to delay putting the cost of options on their income statements. Under current rules, all companies must expense options after June 15. Regulators are reportedly ready to allow companies whose fiscal year ends in December to wait until 2006. But those with financial years ending in the second half of the year would start once their fiscal year ends. The problem is that this makes it more difficult to compare companies’ results – one of the justi...