Apple manages options probe damage
90406
Apple Computer Inc.'s  board  cleared Chief Executive Steve Jobs this week of any misconduct  over stock options accounting problems and Wall Street cheered  him for taking broad responsibility.
248106
WASHINGTON -- The government is aggressively investigating the suspicious timing of stock options granted to top executives at scores of companies, federal officials said yesterday.
502083
Check on the valuation of a badly wounded stock, based on latest earnings.
405386
Apple Computer Inc.  said on Wednesday an internal investigation found irregularities with its past stock option grants prompting the immediate resignation of a former chief financial officer from the board of directors.
403459
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday, Apple said that it was unable to meet the December 14 deadline for filing its annual report. The company cited its ongoing investigation into stock options grants as the reason and said that it would need to restate its historical financial statements.
656090
Apple Inc.  disclosed on Friday that the U.S. government had informally requested more information and documents on its past stock-options practices, and said the issue was a distraction for management.
183038
What companies should have learned from the alarming iPhone price cut.
84656
Today's Schaeffer's Midday Options Update features Apple Computer  (NASDAQ:AAPL). The Midday Options Update contains a brief commentary on  the day's most notable activity and a table listing the most-active  calls and puts for the day.
400730
SHANGHAI -- Apple Computer Inc. said yesterday it is working to resolve a dispute over alleged labor abuses by an iPod manufacturer in China.
17483
UK watchdog the Office of Fair Trading is investigating claims that Apple is ripping off its UK customers. The investigation follows a complaint that UK customers were having to shell out more for the reassuringly
581841
Apple Computer Inc. said on Wednesday it found irregularities with its past stock option grants during an internal investigation and the company will likely need to restate its past financial statements.
406871
(InfoWorld) - The former legal counsel for McAfee is facing federal charges of improperly backdating stock options at the security software company. Kent Roberts, 50, of Dallas, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on seven counts of fraud for improperly backdating options between 2000 and 2002, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. Roberts is charged with "devising a scheme to defraud by granting himself and others valuable in-the-money stock options while hiding the true nature and value of the stock option grants," the statement says. Roberts hid the fraud from the company, then known as Network Associates, its board, shareholders, auditors, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Roberts joins a small butÂ growing list of executivesÂ or former executives of companies charged in the U.S with improperly backdating stock options grants to make them more profitable for the recipients, but at the expense of shareholders. More than 100 U.S. companies are under investigation by the SEC, federal prosecutors, or through internal audits. According to the indictment, the Network Associates board granted Roberts the option to buy 20,000 shares of Network Associates' stock at the strike price of $29.62, which was the price at which the stock closed on Feb. 14, 2000. In late 2000, Roberts became concerned that his options were "underwater," that is, the $29.62 exercise price of the grant was more than the market price for stock. Roberts allegedly caused Network Associates' then-controller to change the grant date and exercise price in the computer system that recorded stock option grants. The grant date was changed to April 14, 2000, with a new exercise price of $19.75. Furthermore, Roberts implicated the then-controller in the improper backdating of other stock options for consultants to the company. Roberts initiated an investigation in 2002 and recommended that the controller be removed from his position. Roberts also participated in a conference call with the SEC at the time, in which he implicated the controller. All the while, the indictment says, Roberts never mentioned that the controller backdated his options, too. The government also says that Roberts altered board meeting minutes to change the date on which options were granted to the company's then-CEO and chairman. He allegedly changed the options date from Jan. 15, 2002, when the stock closed at $27.19, to Jan. 16, when it closed at only $25.43. The greater the difference between the lower options price and the higher market price when the executive exercises the option, the greater the profit. Roberts is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday before Federal Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero in San Francisco. Roberts' attorney Neal Stephens could not be reached for comment.
209801
Apple Inc.  has an received informal request from the U.S. government for more information and documents on its past stock-options practices, the iPod maker said in a regulatory filing on Friday.
379805
Apple Inc.  disclosed on  Friday that the U.S. government had informally requested more  information and documents on its past stock-options practices,  and said the issue was a distraction for management.
619441
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued a ruling that will require Apple, among other companies, to begin deducting the value of stock options from profits, starting in 2005.
335515
(InfoWorld) - Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs apologized to shareholders Wednesday after an internal investigation found that he had been aware of the company's practice of "backdating" employee stock options. "I apologize to Apple's shareholders and employees for these problems, which happened on my watch," Jobs said in a statement, released Wednesday. "They are completely out of character for Apple." A three-month investigation by Apple's board of directorsÂ found that the company had backdated option grants made on 15 dates between 1997 and 2002. Its findings raised "serious concerns" about the roles that two former officers had played in the matter, Apple said. Apple did not identify these former officers, but the company's chief financial officer at the time of the grants, Fred Anderson, has resigned from Apple's board of directors, saying that this is "in Apple's best interests," Apple announced Wednesday. Although investigators found no misconduct by any member of Apple's current management, Jobs was aware of "a few instances" of the practice, Apple said. Jobs did not benefit from the backdated grants and "was unaware of the accounting implications." A number of Silicon Valley companies have been embroiled in the growing controversy over the practice of backdating, or allowing employees to be granted stock options dated from an earlier time, when the trading price of these options was lower. McAfee Inc.,Â Broadcom Corp.,Â Sycamore Networks Inc.Â andÂ Rambus Inc., have been implicated in the scandal, and last June criminal charges wereÂ filed against executives from Brocade Communications Systems Inc.Â in connection with that company's stock option granting practices. Apple believes it will have to restate its past SEC filings in order to record charges for its option grants. The company is working "to ensure that this never happens again," Jobs said. Â
677328
Apple Inc.  reiterated in a regulatory filing on Friday that the U.S. government informally had requested information and documents on its past stock-options practices and said the issue was a distraction for management.