DaimlerChrysler May Stop Offering Stock Options as Compensation

DaimlerChrysler may follow Microsoft Corp. and stop awarding stock options to employees.

Trevor Hale, a spokesman for the German-American automaker in New York, said Wednesday that the company had been considering scrapping options well before Microsoft’s surprise announcement Tuesday, but the policy review was made public after an executive was asked about it during an interview with a German newspaper.

DaimlerChrysler’s finance chief, Manfred Gentz, told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the automaker was considering alternatives to options for executive compensation.

Hale said new corporate governance rules in Germany that place more restrictions on options probably spurred the reevaluation of options grants.

“No decision has been made,” and the automaker has no time frame for reaching one, Hale said.

Software giant Microsoft said Tuesday that it will abandon stock options, the once-lucrative lure for talent, and instead issue shares outright to its employees -- essentially giving them a guaranteed payoff rather than pinning it to future stock gains.

Anne Marie Gattari, a spokeswoman for Ford Motor Co., said Wednesday that the company had no plans to stop offering stock options as part of compensation packages for eligible employees. A General Motors Corp. representative did not return a call for comment.