Telco fat cat boycotts stock options

NEWS Ron Sommer, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, and seven other board members have declined stock option bonuses this year due to the company's falling value. Deutsche Telekom is now worth less than £27bn after its share price dropped to below E10 (£6.39) on Friday for the first time. In March 2000 the business had been worth over £202bn as the shares hit a high of £66.44 each. Shareholders in the business have blamed the falling share price and mounting debts on Sommer's acquisition spree, including nearly £24bn which was paid for US mobile phone company VoiceStream Wireless. Shares in the business have crashed by 45 per cent this year alone, making it the second worse performer on the German DAX index. Sommer is one of a growing number of CEOs to boycott juicy share options as businesses fail to come close to their valuations in the boom years. Marjorie Scardino from Pearson and Gerard Kleisterlee from Royal Phillips Electronics have also waived big bonuses. The heads of Alcatel and Motorola were not given the choice to do the honourable thing as both companies cut all exec bonuses. Sommer's selfless gesture is an improvement on last year when he was booed big time for taking a massive pay rise