Walt Disney Co. sees no material impact on earnings from stock options grants at Pixar Animation Studios. Disney purchased Pixar earlier this year.
“We aren’t aware of any basis at which Pixar options would have a material impact on our earnings,” said Disney Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs in a conference call.
More details via Reuters here.
“Top executives of Pixar Animation Studios have received stock-option grants priced at the shares’ annual lows, according to a media report Tuesday. According to a review of proxy statements for Pixar, which was acquired by Walt Disney Co. this year, executives received these grants in four years between 1997 and 2003, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition,” MarketWatch reports. “The report added that Steve Jobs, founder of the animation company and chief executive of Apple Computer Inc., did not receive Pixar options, while Edwin Catmull, a Pixar co-founder, received one of the grants.”
Full article here.
Related article:
Pixar options draw scrutiny – August 08, 2006
Apple stock options scandal? What scandal? – August 07, 2006
Class action lawsuit over stock options filed against Apple Computer, Inc. – August 04, 2006
Wall Street forgiving of Apple’s stock option irregularities; CEO Jobs unlikely to be terminated – August 04, 2006
Apple’s stock option irregularities escalate into a scandal as world awaits Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote – August 04, 2006
Apple warns of profit restatement dating back to 2002 – August 04, 2006
Apple loses 3.5% to $67.15 in premarket trading – August 04, 2006
Apple announces update regarding stock option grants – August 03, 2006
Shareholder’s options suit against Apple alleges ‘striking pattern that could not have been chance’ – July 11, 2006
Apple announces update regarding stock option grants – July 05, 2006
UBS: stock options probe unlikely to hurt Apple – June 30, 2006
Apple joins growing list of companies entangled in stock option ‘irregularities’ – June 29, 2006
Apple to investigate stock option grant ‘irregularities’ made between 1997 and 2001 – June 29, 2006
Yet the stock heads south
obviously the stock market relies on accurate accounting of business assets and liabilities.
On the one hand, PIXR and AAPL minor accounting infracts are just that and have minimal impact on the over all health of the company.
On the other hand, it undermines the confidence investors have in the financial management team.
It is ashame, in the case of AAPL, that someone like CFO Oppenhimer(sp) has a team that would allow these minor irregularieis to occur.
You must be shorting Disney because it’s up over 3%.
why must MDN continue to follow — PIXAR. It was clear in the past, when Pixar CEO was Mr. Jobs — However, now Mr. Jobs has very little to relate to with Pixar — much less Apple computer. The subject and direct forcus of this “Macdailynews” site is Apple products.
Gone, in case your short attention span is caused by the consumption of too much Nutrasweet™, I’ll fill you in:
AAPL informed us all that they had an issue with the way that options were disbursed. Questions arose, and an internal investigation ensued. More information came out that Pixar, the company that was owned by Steve Jobs at the time that this occurred, had done similar things with options. On the surface, one could possibly assume that Steve Jobs was responsible for both companies, so perhaps Steve Jobs was responsible and possibly even profiting from this at both companies.
While most news organizations would drop it after the initial report – leaving you to believe that SJ was the culprit, MDN has followed up on the story to show that SJ didn’t even get any of the options at Pixar. While this might bother you, I find it refreshing that a news organization actually follows up on stories it reports. Thank you MDN!
Me,
All of this happened before Oppenheimer became CFO. Fred Anderson was CFO in this period. It’s a shame if this hurts Anderson’s legacy, as he probably deserves as much credit as Steve Jobs gets for returning the company to financial health.
Apple’s senior legal counsel, Nancy Heinen, left the company abruptly shortly BEFORE news of the scandal was made public.
Coincidence?
Unfortunately, backdating options and grants has been a common practice at high flying tech companies and Apple played the game, setting up attractive incentives for key personnel.
Unfortunately to them and Apple, someone tracked the dates and prices of the grants and found more than just coincidence in the numbers.
While the overall effect to Apple’s profits is likely to be minor, it is a dent in Apple’s record. It could also force Apple to modify previously granted stock options, and force key personnel to payback some of the ill-gotten gains.