June 25, 2004 5:34 AM

What do we want? Options! When do we want them? Now!
Posted by Jason Butlerat 5:34 AM

This morning's Times covers a rally in Palo Alto in which tech leaders and workers protested proposed stock option accounting changes.

"Stock options are the most powerful incentive we have to attract employees," Andy Bechtolsheim, a founder of several Silicon Valley companies, including Sun Microsystems, told the demonstrators. "Why else would someone leave a large company and take the risk" of joining a start-up firm?

Without options, three out of four start-ups that succeeded in Silicon Valley would have failed, because they would not have been able to attract high-quality employees, Mr. Bechtolsheim said.