Cut this one from "Good Morning Silicon Valley".
Quite obviously the opposing groups used this opportunity to get rid of Tomasetta at what looks like any price, because here we can really talk about the board shooting a fly with a canon.
We'll see if a recovery of some kind - incl. a buy-out - is still possible.
Taro
"...But the uglier stain may be the one on Apple's reputation as it finds itself entangled in the growing mess over the timing and pricing of stock option grants. Apparently hoping the SEC works like the NCAA (preemptively confess your violations, punish yourself vigorously, hope it's enough), Apple disclosed Thursday that it had found "irregularities" in how options were priced for CEO Steve Jobs and others. Apple said Jobs received one of the grants under scrutiny, but added that the grant "was subsequently canceled and resulted in no financial gain" for Jobs. The company provided no details about his or other grants. In his Mercury News story, Mark Schwanhausser sums up the issue: "Investigators and Wall Street analysts are examining patterns that suggest some companies repeatedly backdated options to take advantage of lower stock prices, giving recipients a head start to paper profits. While issuing options at a discount is not necessarily illegal, it appears many companies did so without disclosing it to investors, regulators and the Internal Revenue Service. At the very least, discounting options undermines the claim that recipients profit only if they help boost the company's stock price." Even though more than 50 companies are being eyeballed by the SEC and/or the Justice Department for similar practices, the news raised eyebrows. "That's the surprise here: If Apple can do it, anybody can do it," said Gene Munster, a senior research analyst for Piper Jaffray. "And the reality is a lot of companies have done it."
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