Apple Execs to Pay Back $14M to Settle Stock Option Suit

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Source: Associated Press

By Rachel Metz
09/11/08 10:15 AM PT

Tying up yet another loose end in Apple's stock option backdating scandal, CEO Steve Jobs and other executives will write the company a $14 million check to settle what's known as a "derivative lawsuit." That's an action undertaken by stockholders who allege the company as a whole, rather than themselves as individuals, was harmed by malfeasance. Apple's board must also agree to certain reforms ...

The settlement cleans up a series of state and federal derivative lawsuits against Apple related to the company's 2006 disclosure that there were accounting problems with some of its stock option awards.

Apple took an $84 million charge after it acknowledged it had backdated 6,428 grants between 1997 and 2002 -- retroactively setting a stock option's exercise price to a low point in the stock's value, boosting the profits that are reaped when the options are cashed in. One of those grants was an award of 7.5 million options to Jobs, which he later surrendered in exchange for millions of shares of stock ...

Read more: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Apple-Execs-to-Pay-Back-14M-to-Settle-Stock-Option-Suit-64459.html?wlc=1221185825