Tough calls.

Jefferies, whose stock dropped by almost half in 2011, gave employees a choice when paying the stock-based portion of their annual bonuses: take the firm’s shares, or accept cash at a 25 percent discount. The offer to convert stock awards into payouts boosted cash-compensation expense by $17.5 million, the New York-based firm said in an annual financial report. It didn’t say how many employees opted for cash, and Richard Khaleel, a company spokesman, declined to elaborate.

[Bloomberg]