Micron buries $100M in options pre-FASB No. 123R

Micron led its press release with the announcement of the resignation of a director (Ron Foster) and the appointment of another (Larry Mondry). Of more interest to Any Donkey was the announcement of the acceleration of stock options with the declared purpose to avoid reporting them as an expense later. I am wondering if that is "pre-heating the oven" GAAP 2005 style?

Micron also today announced that on April 4, 2005, the Company’s Governance and compensation Committee of the Board of Directors approved accelerating the vesting of approximately 44.6 million stock options outstanding under the Company’s stock plans. The options have a range of exercise prices of $12.00 to $44.90 and a weighted average exercise price of $14.08. The acceleration affects prior grants to the Company's officers of approximately 6.7 million options having a weighted average exercise price of $14.35. The closing price of the Company’s common stock on April 1, 2005, the last trading day before approval of acceleration, was $10.26. The purpose of the accelerated vesting was to enable the Company to avoid recognizing future compensation expense associated with these options upon adoption of FASB Statement No. 123R, “Share-Based Payment”. The aggregate pre-tax expense associated with the accelerated options that would have been reflected in the Company’s consolidated financial statements beginning in fiscal 2006 was estimated at approximately $100 million.

Read the press release here.