What value stock options?

San Jose Mercury News: Six more months. That's the reprieve accounting rulemakers have given tech companies on stock options.
In light of it, the Senate was right to refrain from jumping into the stock-options expensing controversy -- for now.
Even though a majority of senators have expressed concerns about current proposals to force companies to expense stock options, they chose not to force a vote on a tech-backed bill that was overwhelmingly approved in the House. The bill would require a firm to expense the stock options awarded to its top five execs, but not those awarded to rank-and-file workers.
Reasonable formula
The extra time can't go to waste. It's now up to the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission to work with tech companies to come up with a reasonable formula for calculating the value of stock options. Until such a formula can be found, requiring companies to expense stock options would be irresponsible. It would confuse investors and lead to manipulation -- not to mention hurt America's competitiveness.
SEC Chairman William Donaldson, while insisting that stock options should be expensed, has made some encouraging pronouncements. He has talked about the need to proceed slowly. He has said that better valuation formulas are needed. And he has invited the tech community to work with regulators to help craft them. It's an invitation that tech leaders should accept.