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T A B L E__T A L K Netscape vs. Internet Explorer: Have you chosen a side? Jump into the browser brawl in Table Talk's Digital Culture area - - - - - - - - - - R E C E N T L Y Let's Get This Straight By Scott Rosenberg Story time -- can narrative save us from information overload? (09/29/98) Talk to our agent By Howard Wen In the rapidly consolidating world of computer gaming, you need more than a good idea to get ahead (09/28/98) The president as lab rat By Gary Wolf How much surveillance can one human being take? President Clinton is helping us find out (09/25/98) 21st Log Online petitions duel; Starr's "60 Minutes" quote; Laybourne's underwhelming "media revolution" (09/25/98) From girl games to glamour By Matthew DeBord Silicon Alley star Theresa Duncan moves nimbly between worlds (09/24/98) - - - - - - - - - - BROWSE THE 21ST FEATURES ARCHIVES - - - - - - - - - - 21st Log Value America's indecent proposal - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.

_____play money - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ___________IS SILICON VALLEY TALENT ________________SOURING ON STOCK OPTIONS? BY ANDREW LEONARD | When the search engine company Lycos acquired the "Net information service" WhoWhere for a cool $133 million in stock on Aug. 11, most observers chalked it up as just another typical day in Silicon Valley. Corporate evolution in the high-tech economy typically progresses via a convoluted series of mergers, buyouts and spinoffs. As one local expert notes, in the Valley, "you don't go bankrupt -- you get bought." But just prior to the Lycos acquisition, executives at WhoWhere -- a provider of home pages, people-finding utilities and classified ads -- had been offering prospective employees buckets of potentially lucrative stock options and telling them that an IPO, an initial public offering, was imminent. "They hired a whole lot of engineers, telling them the company is in anticipation of IPO," says one engineer, who asked not to be named. "They lured a lot of us to go over there and leave our current companies." Some settled for lower salaries than they could otherwise have demanded. The engineers were hoping to cash in on Silicon Valley's favorite get-rich-quick scheme. After the IPO, when WhoWhere stock would have theoretically shot up to stratospheric levels, the engineers would be able to "exercise" their options: to purchase WhoWhere stock at way-below-market prices. But instead, Lycos bought the company -- and the WhoWhere employees suddenly learned that their stock options were to be exchanged for stock in Lycos at a ration that was, according to one engineer, "ridiculously low." "A bunch of people got screwed," says the engineer. "There was a lot of yelling and screaming." "I can understand how someone could say, 'I've been burned,'" says WhoWhere CEO Dale Fuller. "They look at a Yahoo and think, God, I could be worth $10 billion in a week. The reality is we were very, very fortunate, and we have a win under our belts -- we're now valued at $150 million." Fuller says the company had every intention of pursuing an IPO. But then came July's stock market correction. Suddenly, IPO madness came to a screeching halt -- no one was going public. Fuller says WhoWhere decided to make the best of a bad situation and agreed to sell out to Lycos. Every deal has its malcontents. And in Silicon Valley, where the dream of hitting it big through stock options is cherished almost as an inalienable right, those denied their chance to rake in millions via a public offering might well get agitated. In 1996, according to one oft-repeated statistic, 62 high-tech millionaires are supposed to have been created every 24 hours. In Silicon Valley, the stock option is how a company attracts and keeps talent -- and, of particular importance for cash-strapped startups, how it gets high-priced employees to work for less than they might otherwise accept. And for years, high-tech professionals looking for a big payoff have been willing to pay the price -- to take those lower salaries in exchange for option packages, to accept the risk that is at the heart of any startup company's strategy. Accusations of bad faith aside, the WhoWhere episode is just one case where people bet and lost. Again, just another day in Silicon Valley. Or was it? According to some veterans, the Valley may be entering a new era -- and not just because stock market turmoil has suddenly made everyone older and wiser. Some high-tech professionals appear to be realizing that, in many cases, the stock-option deck is stacked against them. "There are enough people in this valley that have been lied to that everyone knows someone who thought they were hooked onto a star and who later wallpapered their bathroom with their options," says "jc" -- a software engineer with experience at a number of startups who also asked that his real name not be used. N E X T_ P A G E .|. All the dirty little secrets about stock options revealed! - - - - - - - - - - - - ILLUSTRATION BY BART NAGEL