Boycott Coca-Cola

A friend sent me this e-mail which was circulated around his company recently. As this was an internal document, I’ve elided the company’s name, but pass it on because it’s an excellent idea. If Coca-Cola wants to dictate employment practices to other industries, those of us who disapprove of their position can dictate back. Here you go:

—–forwarded message—–

TO: DL-All-California

FROM: Facilities Information

DATE: July 25, 2002

SUBJECT: [Company’s] ban of Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola Company recently announced their decision to expense their employee stock options. While their action appears to be benevolent to the investing public, Coke does not use options as extensively as the technology industry, and the impact to their financial statements is very small. Coke is also deviating from the Black Scholes model preferred by the accounting profession, further reducing the earnings impact of their decision. Their action was clearly propelled by their chief investor, Warren Buffett, who has campaigned against stock options for years.

The issues in this debate are complex, but the one fact we employees should understand is that if options are expensed then the number of options granted to workers in technology will go down dramatically. Options have helped [Company] and other companies in the volatile technology arena attract the best and the brightest. Options have given our workers a share of the growth that their extra efforts have generated for shareholders. Warren Buffett may not want to share that growth with you, but [Company] firmly believes that growth would not exist without you. We will continue to defend the current accounting for options, which provides full disclosure of option grants, and leaves it up to investors to decide the true impact to shareholders of stock options granted to employees.

As a symbolic gesture of our disdain for Coca-Cola’s recent grab for headlines, Coke and products of the Coca-Cola Company will be removed from [Company’s] vending machines and cafeterias. We would also urge you to write to Coca-Cola and tell them that you and your family will not purchase their products while they use their marketing power to try to deprive you of your opportunity to benefit from the technology we create.
—–end forwaded message—–

All of this makes me wonder why, if Jimmy Warren Buffett is such a genius investor, shares in his holding company Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa) are trading at 63,650.00, below its pre-bubble, 1998 level, and why, if he’s such a champion of the little guy, he doesn’t split the stock to a price that the little guy could actually pay. Jimmy Warren is most likely one of those “do as I say” guys.