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Strategies & Market Trends : Option Granting Practices and exploits -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (90)	12/8/2006 1:24:46 PM
From: Glenn Petersen	Respond to of 165

Kobi Alexander may have altered the exercise dates on his options and committed tax fraud. It will be interesting to see if the Republic of Namibia extradites him. Report: Alexander may have fudged option exercise dates Wall Street Journal: Although ex-Comverse CEO Kobi Alexander may have backdated options in 1998, he might have just been lucky. Gil Shlomo 6 Dec 06 15:49 The “Wall Street Journal” reports today that Comverse Technology Inc. (Nasdaq: CMVT) founder and former CEO Kobi Alexander may have fudged option exercise dates, in addition to allegedly backdating his options grants to make illegal profits. The “Wall Street Journal” cites an exercise of options by Alexander in 1998. If backdating occurred in this instance, then Alexander evaded paying taxes to the IRS on his earnings. The newspaper relies on a report by Gradient Analytics Inc. about the 1998 exercise, which Gradient sent to its clients, including hedge funds and mutual fund money managers. In the report, Gradient did not conclude that Alexander backdated options in the 1998 case, and said that his timing might have been a matter of luck. Alexander’s attorney, Adv. Robert Morvillo, declined to comment. The “Wall Street Journal” says, “The IRS considers the spread between the option’s strike price and the share’s market value on the exercise date to be subject to tax as ordinary income. Because most executives exercise their options and sell the shares simultaneously, all of the gain is often taxed in this way. But when shares aren’t sold at the same time as the option is exercised, the difference between the market value of the shares on the date of exercise and any price when the shares are subsequently sold is taxed at the lower capital gains rate.” The paper notes, “At the time of the 1998 exercises by Alexander, the top capital gains tax rates was 20%, while the top rate on ordinary income was 39.6%.” Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on December 6, 2006 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2006 globes.co.il

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (90)	12/8/2006 3:12:09 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 165

JBL Jabil Circuit: Jabil Circuit provides update on its form 10-K filing (JBL) 28.44 -0.39 : Co announces that it was not able to file its annual report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended August 31, 2006 by Nov 29, 2006, the date by which the applicable rules of the SEC required Jabil to file its 2006 Form 10-K in order for it be considered to have filed it in a timely manner. As previously disclosed, Jabil is involved in several shareholder derivative and purported securities class action lawsuits in connection with certain historical stock option grants. Jabil is also responding to an informal inquiry from the SEC and has responded to a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York that relate to such grants. Separately, a Special Review Committee of Jabil's Board of Directors was appointed to review the allegations in certain of the derivative actions. Jabil said it is cooperating fully with the Special Review Committee, the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's office. In light of these developments, Jabil, through its legal counsel, assisted by accounting advisors, has been evaluating its historical stock option grant practices. The evaluation is not complete. (From briefing.com, 2.04)

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (90)	2/14/2007 7:35:19 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 165

BEAS BEA Systems provides conclusions of stock option review; expects that it will restate its financial statements from Fiscal 1998 through Fiscal 2007 (BEAS) 12.53 +0.20 : Co announces the principal conclusions of its ongoing stock option review. In Aug 2006, the co announced that its Board of Directors had asked its Audit Committee to review the co's historic stock option grant practices. The principal findings of the review are: Most options granted between Jun 1997 and Jun 2006 were approved via Unanimous Written Consents; With respect to a number of grants, some members of senior mgmt appear to have chosen grant dates with the benefit of hindsight and submitted those grants for approval through UWCs to be executed by the CEO; Prior to April 2003, administrative errors prevented some option grants from being approved in a timely fashion; The co did not grant options to employees prior to an employee's start date. However, in certain instances, employees were permitted to begin a leave of absence upon being hired, allowing the employees to receive a stock option grant and specific exercise price as of their start date without providing service during the leave of absence; Certain employees were granted options that were later cancelled and either immediately or shortly thereafter reissued at a lower price... At this time, the co expects that it will restate its financial statements from Fiscal 1998 through Fiscal 2007, and that it will record non-cash compensation expense, on a pre-tax basis, of between $340 and $390 mln, with the majority of this expense relating to grants made in the Fiscal 1999 through Fiscal 2002 period.

To: RockyBalboa who wrote (90)	10/12/2007 1:51:29 PM
From: RockyBalboa	Respond to of 165

BEAS System receives inadequate offer, delinquency and options mishap diminish shareholder value. Business software maker BEA Systems Inc said on Friday that its board had concluded that a $17 per share unsolicited takeover bid from Oracle Corp "significantly under-values BEA." BEA Systems fell under scrutiny after a review of option grants between 1997 and 2006, leading to a restatement and a compensation expense, on a pre-tax basis, of between $340 and $390 mln.