Barnes & Noble Facing Questions on Stock Options
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Barnes & Noble Inc. has received a subpoena from a U.S. attorney requesting documents on its stock options practices.
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Dow Jones & Co., which has been in  talks for a takeover by News Corp., will meet with supermarket  magnate Ron Burkle as Dow Jones explores its options, a source  familiar with the situation said on Sunday.
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The company talks down a recent inexplicable stock run-up.
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Wall Street is expressing growing doubt that Riggs National Corp.&#39;s sale to PNC Financial Services Group Inc. will go off as planned, or even at all.
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By Crayton Harrison, The Dallas Morning News  Dec. 16--Dell Inc. is awaiting a panel's decision on whether its stock will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq stock market, the company said Friday.
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By Pete CareySTAFF  Congressional investigators are questioning Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd's sale of stock options, worth $1.37 million, which occurred 15 days before the company's controversial boardroom leak investigation became public.
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Boots bosses meet to decide whether to open up its books to a private equity firm which has made an approach for it.
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(InfoWorld) - Novell has begun an internal review to investigate how the company granted stock options to employees in recent years and to assess whether, in the light of the findings, Novell will need to restate any earnings. The software vendor made the announcement Tuesday afternoon as it released third-quarter results for fiscal 2006. Novell cautioned that the results should be considered preliminary financials until it has concluded its voluntary stock options review. The company didn't provide a date as to when it expects those investigations to be complete and so it's possible Novell may need to delay the filing of its third-quarter Form 10-Q to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). On a conference call with analysts, Ronald Hovsepian, president and chief executive officer of Novell, said the review was "in no way a reflection on the quality of our business or the future growth prospects." Novell will report on the progress of the investigation as appropriate. "In the meantime, it's full speed ahead with building our business and executing on our strategy," he added. Novell's move comes as the SEC continues to widen its probe into potentially fraudulent stock options practices occurring now or in the past at U.S. companies and related to the backdating of options. By timing the granting of options to a low point in a company's stock, an options recipient could buy shares cheaply and then resell them for a greater profit once the vendor's share price rose. Already the SEC investigation has touched a number of IT companies including Sycamore NetworksÂ and the SEC has filed securities fraud chargesÂ against the former managementÂ heads ofÂ software vendor Comverse TechnologyÂ and storage networking firm Brocade Communications Systems. Other IT vendors including Apple Computer, CA Inc., McAfee, and RambusÂ have identified irregularities in their options accounting which, in some cases, led to the companies restating financial results dating back several years. Novell's preliminary third-quarter results saw the company reporting net income of $11.6 million on revenue of $241.3 million and earnings per share (EPS) of $0.03. For the fourth financial quarter due to end Oct. 31, Dana Russell, Novell's interim chief financial officer, estimated the company's revenue will be between $246 million and $256 million with an EPS of $0.04. Those predictions don't take account of the findings of the stock options review, he noted, with the likely impact of that investigation knocking EPS down to $0.01. Russell said Novell's leadership isn't happy with the company's current overall level of profitability, but believes it's on "the right track for the health of the business," expecting long-term profitability to improve.
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Adobe Systems, which makes design software, said yesterday that it had received a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for more information about its stock option practices.
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Barnes & Noble's efforts could further cool relations among the company, other book retailers and the publishing houses that are its biggest suppliers.
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What stock price does and does not tell you about a company.
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The firm teaches us a new way to fudge stock options.
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Wondering how a sudden event will impact a company in which you're invested? Don't just stand there, ask.
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Concerns mount that Warren Buffett's holding company might be overvalued.
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Shares of the specialty retailer, which recently posted  better-than-expected November sales, may be undervalued despite  their rise this year, financial weekly Barron's said, citing an  analyst.
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Investors may want to shop elsewhere for inexpensive retail stocks.
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Wall Street had questions. The market had answers.