More details on options

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Microsoft gave more details about its plan to let employees sell their otherwise worthless stock options to investment bank JP Morgan Chase. Among other things, the company disclosed that it will give employees a period of at least 20 business days later this year, during which they can decide whether to sell their "underwater" options at a discount or to hold on to them and hope that the company's share price ultimately rises enough to give the options some value.

This is an outgrowth of the company's shift to giving employees actual stock, rather than options to buy stock, as part of their compensation packages. See the P-I item about the filing, the full SEC filing, our July story about the underwater-options plan, and our story the day before that about the company's broader shift away from options.