Option Awards - Self-service by greedy CEO's

Again we have to reiterate: the fish starts to smell at the top. If CEO's would not be the main beneficiaries of the gaming of option awards the problem would not exist. Today's report in the Wall Street Journal about egregious abuse of executive share option awards by chief executives of companies that are in the middle of merger negotiations illustrates the unrestrained greed that is seen as acceptable by some executives. It beggars belief that Ronald Rittenmeyer, CEO of Electronic Data Systems Corp. finds no fault in accepting a share award just before a takeover deal allows him to take a profit $13.4 million on these very share options. He even has the temerity to claim: 'I did my job and I did the right thing by my shareholders'. Need we say more?