“Apple Inc. won dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit claiming company officers including Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs were overpaid with illegally backdated option awards,” Joel Rosenblatt reports for Bloomberg.
“U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California, dismissed the case in an order [yesterday]. Apple, maker of the iPod and iPhone music-and-video players, said last year that 6,428 stock-option grants issued between 1997 and 2002 were backdated,” Rosenblatt reports.
The New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the lead plaintiff in the case, acknowledged that Apple’s stock price didn’t fall as a result of the backdating, which is the most common basis for shareholder claims [but] argued the awards caused Apple to dilute its stock by issuing more than 200 million shares that weren’t properly accounted for or disclosed,” Rosenblatt reports. “‘While the subsequent disclosure that the options were backdated might require a restatement, without a discernable drop in the stock price there is no basis upon which to establish an injury to shareholders,’ Fogel wrote in his opinion.”
Rosenblatt reports, “Apple, based in Cupertino, California, found no misconduct by Jobs, who recommended favorable dates on some option grants other than his own. The company recorded $84 million in charges to correct its accounting.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Nice. Should probably see a pop in the share price if the general market doesn’t drag everyone down with it.
Beware of the words:
“But everyone is doing it”
On another note, cool MDN has included a text box expander in the lower right corner.
I wonder how much the NYC Retirement System lost in in the law suit compared to how much they thought they lost from diluted stock value.
Pete — that’s actually a new Leopard feature.
Pete, I believe the expandable text box is a Leopard feature.
It is available on any web text box.
But I agree – how cool is that?!
…but Paul beat me to the punch!
MDN MW: Increase, ie. He must increase, and I must decrease.
1 lawsuit down….50,000,000 more to go
Pete, er, Paul, and merry…
I believe it is a Safari 3 feature, as it is on my Tiger rig….
The expandable text box is a Safari 3, not a Leopard, feature. It’s been available in the Safari 3 beta, even under Tiger…
@Paul
Actually it is a Safari 3 feature since it showed up when running Safari 3 Beta while in Tiger.
P.S. I would not like to face all the NY retirees with theirs and Apple’s legal bills!
Is there an echo in here? ……… echo… echo… echo…
Yeah, i have the expandable text box too and I’m sunning Tiger.
I mean, I’m running Tiger. He’s got enough sun for today.
Also, is it just me or does Safari 3 makes the buttons and edges on webpages (and everything in general) look much sharper and clearer? Anyone else see this?
Wooooooo hooooooo! Stevie gets away with murder AGAIN! Would love to huff them loafers.
I’ve had more backdated options in my 50+ years than any of you 12-year-olds ever will.
This is just outrageous. Steve Jobs has been such a bad influence on my shareholder value.