This study extends the employee stock option literature by examining the holding period between exercise and eventual disposition of shares for evidence of earnings management and private information. Prior research has found that hold decisions are associated with future price appreciation, and inferred that private information is behind the decision. This study examines the holding period to determine if the observed future returns are influenced by managers manipulating earnings over the holding period or based on actual private information. It uses multiple proxies for earnings management and finds that individual hold behavior is associated with concurrent and future discretionary accruals. It also finds that a firm-wide hold measure can be used to incrementally explain current and future discretionary accruals. It then examines the relationship between a cleaner proxy for private information (future acquisition announcements), and finds that future acquisitions are associated with current holding decisions.