Options? I was granted options.

I was granted options about 20 years ago. That company was Digital Equipment Corporation It was 100 options to buy the stock at $153. In 1989, the stock had crashed to below $100 from its eternal peak of $199 prior to the 1987 crash.

While other stocks would recover, DEC would not be one of them. From the moment the options were granted the stock price declined, and rather than rewrite them to say... $20, the company just wanted everyone to cash them in for $3 a share, which everyone did. It was an accounting thing -- to get it off the books. The repurchase happened in 1993, also the year I was terminated after 18 years there. DEC was bought by Compaq in 1998, and Compaq by HP in 2002. I moved on to Lehman Brothers in 1993. That's another story for another time.