With Microsoft employing more millionaires than you could shake a stick at, it was interesting to hear senior company management bemoan the downside last week.

First the chief financial officer, Mr Greg Maffei, told European journalists visiting the company's headquarters in Redland, Washington, that stock option schemes meant mediocre and less productive workers also ended up becoming millionaires.

However, worries about valuable staff taking early retirement to live off their accumulated riches appeared misplaced. Cost consciousness appears to be the order of the day with the single-most popular company benefit scheme being PRIME cards issued to local Microsoft employees offering two-for-the-price-of-one deals on videos and pizzas. "These are people who could buy the Pizza Hut," exclaimed the company's vice-president of human resources, Mr Mike Murray.