Siebel Shareholders Narrowly Defeat Options Expensing

Siebel SystemsSEBL shareholders narrowly voted down a proposal for the software maker to expense stock options at the company's annual meeting Wednesday.

Of the votes cast at the meeting, Siebel reported that 50.95% of shareholders voted against or abstained from voting for the proposal to expense stock options, and 49.05% voted for the proposal from The United Brotherhood of Carpenters Pension Fund.

The narrow vote comes as the Financial Accounting Standards Board is widely expected to require companies to expense stock options, despite strong opposition from tech companies. Siebel has been among the more generous distributors of stock options but has recently significantly scaled back that practice as it faces the prospect of having to expense them.

Siebel's shareholder vote comes a day before FASB plans to hold public roundtable discussions on its proposal in Palo Alto, Calif., Thursday. The issue is apparently so important to Silicon Valley employees that they are planning a lunchtime rally in downtown Palo Alto to voice their opinion that stock options are important to driving innovation.

Shares of Siebel closed up 15 cents, or 1.4%, at $11.05 in regular trading Wednesday; after hours, shares were recently down 11 cents, or 1%, at $10.94.