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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: NAG1 who wrote (54566)	7/17/2006 9:13:36 PM
From: inaflash	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213183

Seems like Apple is not alone in this practice. Doesn't make it right but the big picture is bigger than I think anyone expected. Actually, the practice was well known, and there really wasn't a problem with that before S-O. Even today, there is nothing wrong with it, except the perception of something wrong or illegal. The only thing that S-O adds is disclosure, so these practices are now more open, and companies can continue to price options however they wish, but now they have to tell the stockholders. Thousands of companies and hundreds of thousands of employees received these benefits. They didn't all try to keep this a secret. It's the handful that benefited disproportionately and after S-O without disclosure that really is at issue. At Apple, the biggest potential benefit was never realized, so it renders most of this investigation moot. SEC has bigger fish to fry, and this fishing expedition will soon end with only a few moderate size catches. This isn't another Enron that will bring down some giant companies, as all the "loses" have for the most part already been realized.