“Pixar, the animation studio formerly headed by Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs, handed out favorably priced options to key employees between 1997 and 2001, according to published reports,” Troy Wolverton reports for TheStreet.com. “In several cases, the options handed out carried a strike price equivalent to the lowest market price of Pixar’s stock in the year they were granted, according a Bloomberg report.”
“In another case, Pixar, which was recently acquired by Walt Disney, granted options right before it announced a key deal with Disney that sent Pixar’s stock up 49%, according to the report,” Wolverton reports. “Among the beneficiaries of the low-priced options, according to Bloomberg, were John Lasseter, the company’s head of creative development; President Edwin Catmull; and Sarah McArthur, Pixar’s vice president of production.”
“A Pixar representative did not return a call seeking comment on the report. Neither Disney nor Pixar has acknowledged any problems to date with Pixar’s past options grants,” Wolverton reports. “The report could serve to give further scrutiny to the role, if any, Jobs played in the granting of the options. Apple has already acknowledged certain “irregularities” in grants made during the same time period, including an outsized one to Jobs himself.”
Wolverton reports, “Jobs on Monday declined to comment about his knowledge of options problems at Apple.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “DavidO” for the heads up.]
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