I see the stock is down AH, but I believe this is a bit of a witch hunt and retail shorts are the only people who care about this, but we will see tomorrow.
Options backdating is legal, and there is some sort of accounting gotchas in it, apparently.
But I really wanted apple to come out with restated financials at this announce and they didn't. Now we have to wait how long for the restatement which is a non event since it was pre-2002.
apple.com
"The independent investigation's key findings are:
• The investigation found no misconduct by any member of Apple's current management team.
• The most recent evidence of irregularities relates to a January 2002 grant.
• Stock option grants made on 15 dates between 1997 and 2002 appear to have grant dates that precede the approval of those grants.
• In a few instances, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was aware that favorable grant dates had been selected, but he did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications. "
The latest announcement is basically that the witch hunt is over. I don't think Anderson will be charged, but he stepped down to distance the scandal from Apple. Jobs was basically exonerated, though some reporters are doing their best to try to make him look guilty of some crime. If you read the following quickly, it gives the impression that Jobs was complicit in some "potentially illegal activity".
"Steve Jobs, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) 's chief executive, on Wednesday admitted to knowing about potentially illegal employee stock option practices at the iPod and Mackintosh computer maker, as a former chief financial officer resigned from its board over the affair."
us.ft.com
The reality is that Jobs admitted he knew of some backdating activity, but any potential illegality was likely only brought up during the investigation. In any case, since all the dates mentioned so far are pre-2002, it is highly unlikely that any are found to be illegal. The main liability is some back taxes, interest and penalties. Apple might even get some credit back, though they're probably going to have to take care of the employees who received these options. |
