eBay and others want you to look past options expenses. Don't

[Kristijntje]

Wouldn't it be nice if you could say a whole category of your regular expenses, such as your utility bills, don't really count? If you could convince someone that those expenses, even though they showed up in your bank statement, should be added back every three months?

That's what some companies, including eBay Inc., are trying to do when they ask investors to ignore expenses such as employee stock options when they report their quarterly earnings.

Don't buy it. Regard with suspicion the pro-forma or adjusted earnings numbers that emerge after "certain expenses" are stripped away

full article: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/10/..._28_05.txt