Corporate boards have found a way to reduce shareholder value

Paying their CEOs with options:

Many CEOs stand to come out losers if they sell their companies, even when shareholders would reap a substantial premium. Only 14.5% of chief executives would do better selling their companies at a 25% premium than they would under their current pay packages, according to an analysis of compensation packages for CEOs of companies in the Standard & Poor's 1500 index by compensation consultancy Shareholder Value Advisors.  In many cases, the loss of expected future pay and the time value of options would more than wipe out gains on equity and on the spread between the option exercise price and the take-out price.