ESOPs a Fable

Perhaps the reason employee stock ownership plans have not been popular with marketing firms is because they simply don’t make sense for companies whose only assets their employees walk out the door every night (“Workers Become Owners at Crisis P.R. Agency Sitrick,” March 15).

ESOPs have been around at least since the late ’80s less to “incentivize” employees (though that’s how they’ve been sold) than to allow the company owner(s), who couldn’t manage an IPO and the public scrutiny it entails or couldn’t sell the company, to cash out in whole or in part.

Owning stock in a private company whose market value is largely undeterminable and can fluctuate dramatically over time or whose management is comprised entirely of a single individual or family is not something most employees can afford to base their retirement income on. Better cash in hand and a retirement plan like a 401(k) that lets you invest in a far more certain future.

MICHAEL DAVIDSON

President

AirTime Network