15. Stock option in Sony Corp of America (1989)

15. Stock option in Sony Corp of America (1989)

When I was with Sony Microsystems as a company President, we require to hire a lot of first

class engineers workstation related software engineers. Being in the Silicon Valley, we need to have very attractive package to these engineers.

We have an internal discussion on this matter and come up to have a stock option package which is the most popular incentive and cost to company would be very small.

I have brought this to Sony USA HR related management but they told me that we cannot have such stock option. The reason is that Sony’s stock were listed in Tokyo, New York etc and Sony is under Japanese commercial law and the stock option can apply only for venture companies at that time. We understand that the commercial law has changed in 1997 so Sony is read for stock option. However, we have provided a bonus scheme for those engineers so it would be better than nothing. This may be one of reason why Japanese corporation In California will not be able to hire first-class engineers. We unfortunately missed a opportunity!