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When Microsoft adopted third-party option transferability in 2003, the program made waves as an unorthodox way to incent and retain employees. The software giant's one-time offer for employees to get value for below-market options by selling them to JPMorgan Chase had Wall Street speculating about a potential secondary market for vested options. Four years later, Google is making headlines for a more permanent transferable stock option (TSO) program that will allow employees to sell their vested options to preapproved financial institutions in an online auction managed by Morgan Stanley. This time, because the advantages are many, the prospect of a TSO trend looks promising.
