“Yet another Apple Inc. shareholder has filed a lawsuit in California seeking to prove that the company’s directors wasted more than $105 million on the extra value of backdated stock options granted to CEO Steve Jobs,” Frank Reynolds reports for FindLaw.
“This time, the plaintiff claims to have new specifics that it gathered from a records inspection action it initiated earlier in the Santa Clara County Superior Court,” Reynolds reports.
“However, the shareholder, the Boston Retirement Board, says it cannot put those details on paper in the new complaint because the court has not ruled yet on how the confidential information should be treated,” Reynolds reports. “The pension fund says the specifics to back up its charges might have to go into an amended or sealed version of the complaint to be filed later.”
“In the past two years other Apple shareholders have seen their lawsuits over the backdating dismissed or stalled for lack of details to back up the charges,” Reynolds reports. “All the suits concern the board’s approval of hundreds of millions of stock options for Jobs and other top-level Apple executives from 1997 to 2001, which Apple admitted to in June 2006.”
Full article here.
Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK, “Apple CEO Steve Jobs and other members of the company board have been summoned to appear in a new case connected with the company’s stock options accounting practices.
“The Boston Retirement Board issued summonses against Jobs and Apple directors and/or officers: William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Arthur Levinson, Jerome York, Gareth Chang, Edgar Wollard, Fred Anderson and Nancy Heinen,” Evans reports.
“These summons were put in place by the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara and relate to case number 1-08-CV-110403,” Evans reports.
Full article here.
Whatevah.
Jail time for Steve Jobs???
@Mac+,
Not likely.
Mac+: That’s about as likely as Ballmer growing hair.
That only happens in criminal court when prosecuted by the State. This is a civil lawsuit, jailtime isn’t possible – he might lose some money, but he cannot be jailed for a civil action.
The FUD spewing f*cktards are at it again. This action, if actually won in court, would devastate the stock and the interests of the very idiots bringing the action. I have little doubt that Apple and SJ will not lose in court, but this action gives the vile anal-ists another excuse to downgrade Apple.
There is no cure for stupidity.
Steve Jobs is a criminal who should be sent to prison for his role in backdating options at both Apple and Pixar. The behind the scenes cover up at Apple must be exposed.
The guy is a crook.
I’m all for accountability but at some point this WASTES even more money through legal fees and wasted resources.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
Dell gave me an idea. I’ll transplant some pubes.
“The guy is a crook.”
He has only created about $130 BILLION in shareholder value sicne returning to Apple. Yes sure whatever bud.
Take off you blue LED colored glasses pal and smell the reality.
SJ is a hero to many if not to you.
The SEC investigation cleared him, there is no possible way that THIS effort will go anywhere…
Not newsworthy.
The crook_sj ejaculated “The guy is a crook.”
Where’s your proof? Put up or STFU.
I wish this “crook” ran my company.
So. Does the Boston Retirement Board still hold shares of AAPL? If so, they shoot themselves in their collective feet by an unnecessary action that can (again) negatively affect stock pricing. Perhaps they simply want to see Steve Jobs resign so that someone more competent can run the company?
Perhaps their lawyers needed an income boost and proposed this lawsuit. Or… ?
The SEC investigation cleared him, there is no possible way that THIS effort will go anywhere…
———————
Unless new incriminating evidence surfaces that was not available during the SEC investigation.
Doesn’t it seem odd that, given the importance of Steve Jobs to Apple’s health, one of its shareholders wants to sue him? Isn’t that biting the hand that feeds you?
I bet this whole thing is because Boston Retirement Board wants more AAPL shares but don’t want to pay current prices:
Step 1: Sue Apple
Step 2: Buy shares at lowered value
Step 3: Drop (or lose) lawsuit
Step 4: Profit
(to take a page out of Slashdot)
Here’s their strategy: Sell their AAPL holdings, sue them, watch the stock drop, then buy back in.
An old joke: A bus carrying lawyers goes off a cliff. Such a tragedy… that two of them survived.
“Mac+: That’s about as likely as Ballmer growing hair.”
And that’s even more likely than Ballmer growing a sense of taste (excluding that for Tasty Kakes).
@LinuxGuyAndMacProdigalSon,
Well said. Perhaps the rest of the Apple shareholders could sue the Boston Retirement Board for damaging everyone else’s earnings when the stock plummets?
C’mon! Look at to me these hypocrites moralists! Always the same ones!… How if everyone were unaware of that that always occurs like this in slides!
“The SEC investigation cleared him, there is no possible way that THIS effort will go anywhere…’
Different standards of proof. For criminal charges it has to be beyond reasonable doubt. For civil just more likely than no that he did wrong.
And lets face it, it’s more likely than not that he knew and approved of what was going on.