Prolific dispensers of stock options, particularly in high-tech industries, have fought bitterly against having to show the cost of those grants. But now dozens of them have found an easy way to wipe those expenses off their books -- at least for now.

These companies are speeding up the vesting of the options they`ve handed out to employees and executives. By making sure those options vest before June, they can avoid showing them as an expense on their earnings statements.

Reports of companies taking this route have trickled out in recent months as accounting regulators considered and then decided to mandate the expensing of stock options. In a report last week, Bear Stearns tallied up the numbers: Some 102 public companies have decided to accelerate the vesting of at least some of their outstanding options. By doing so, those companies have avoided having to show $1 billion of options costs once expensing starts, Bear Stearns estimated.

``We expect more companies to announce such actions as we approach the effective date`` of the expensing rule, Bear Stearns analyst Pat McConnell said in the report.

Some 36% of the companies that have chosen this tack are in the options-enamored tech industry. But companies that are speeding the vesting of their stock grants come from all sectors of the economy. Among them:

Noven Pharmaceuticals (NOVN:Nasdaq - news - research), which Monday said that it accelerated the vesting of some 932,000 out-of-the-money options, including about 401,000 held by the company`s executive officers.

Viacom (VIAB:NYSE - news - research), which last month sped the vesting of 29 million underwater options, including 5 million held by executives. The move wiped out a potential post-tax expense of $242 million, which represents nearly 30% of what the company would have earned from its continuing operations last year if not for an $18 million writedown of goodwill.

Linear Technology (LLTC:Nasdaq - news - research), an analog chipmaker, which earlier this year announced it was accelerating the vesting of about 4.5 million out-of-the-money options, thereby avoiding a $75 million charge on its income statement.

The accelerated vesting is perfectly legal. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have signed off on the practice. But many accounting experts and corporate governance activists have criticized the practice.

``It`s appalling,`` said Nell Minow, editor and founder of the Corporate Library, a research firm that focuses on governance issues. Institutional investors are already saying that the issue could encourage them to withhold votes from corporate directors, she said. ``It shows bad faith and bad judgment on the part of [corporate] boards.``