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  Bumbling old fool, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 12:57pm

  
  

  Man...

  I wish I had his teflon...

   

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  a, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 1:30pm

  
  

  He is kind of running out of things to bump this story out of the headlines. He has done the phone and the DRM of labels.
  
  Wonder if he will come out with a big net neutrality paper soon?

   

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  JWW, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 2:09pm

  
  

  Bad for stockholders

  Whats ironic in all of this is that the pursuit of these claims ostensibly to protect shareholders, but if Steve ever gets charged in this the shareholders are going to lose massive amounts of money. It would be the worst thing they could possibly do for shareholders.

   

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  DMM, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 2:15pm

  
  

  The final line of defense

  isn't whether or not Steve actually knew about or was closely involved with the backdating, but rather whether or not he understood the accounting implications and was involved in not making a proper accounting for the backdated options.

   

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  Scott Salbo, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 2:50pm

  
  

  Backdating

  Actually, there is nothing illegal in the backdating of stock options. Not a single thing, though it is often assumed to be unscrupulous. But this assumes that the activity is in some way harmful to the interests of the corporation and its shareholders. Apple is Steve Jobs, and Steve Jobs is Apple. No corporate investor interested in Apples future cares about this story, and is only kept alive by the media pundits who want the public to believe a law was broken, where no prohibition actually exists.

   

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  William, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 3:44pm

  
  

  They suck

  They should do away with stock options all together. And make companies pay all compensation with cash. Stock options only dilute share prices and hurt the share holders without effecting the company bottom line and they are the reason for the soaring compensation packages that CEO's get. A cash economy would promote fiscal responsibility and stop all of this corruption. And as a share holder it pisses me off every time a company basically gives away stock for a dollar to some executive and he turns around and sells them for fifty dollars.

   

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  andy, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 5:11pm

  
  

  Re: They suck

  "hurt the share holders without effecting the company bottom line and they are the reason for the soaring compensation packages that CEO's get."
  
  you're half right... stock options DO affect the bottom line as of last year and the passage of FAS 123, which requires the expensing of stock options. but they still are the reason why ceos cash out big.
  
  also, backdating options isn't illegal, the dispute would be over whether or not the options were properly accounted for. usually, options are priced at the current day's market price, giving them an intrinsic value of $0 and, therefore, $0 is recorded as an expense. if they're backdated, to, say, a price of $3 when the price today is $20, each share of backdated stock should be expensed the intrinsic value of $17 because that's how much money the company lost in backdating the options. If you gave it to them at $3 when it was worth $20 and recorded $0 as expense, that's what gets you in trouble.

   

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  John, Feb 12th, 2007 @ 12:37pm

  
  

  Re: They suck

  Stock options actually align the goals of employee wit the goals of investors. Everyone wants to drive the stock price up. While backdating eliminates some (if not all) of this incentive, stock options are a good thing for investors. If you give me, an employee, the option to buy stock in the future at today's price (not the best price last year), I am going to work it do what I can to improve the stock price to get the most money. As long as options continue, it is in my imterest to keep things above board to avoid worthlesss options.

   

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  An ony mouse, Feb 9th, 2007 @ 4:30pm

  
  

  Jealousy

  The story has legs because Jobs is on top. There are a lot of people who want to see him tumble because schadenfreude is the only happiness they have in their lives.

   

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  The Cell Geek, Feb 11th, 2007 @ 8:15am

  
  

  Silly Jobs... your not supposed to get caught

  Does this make Steve Jobs the Joe Smith of Silicon Valley? I hope this costs The Timberwolves more draft picks...

   

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  a, Feb 11th, 2007 @ 7:56pm

  
  

  I think some of the posters here must work for Apple or their PR Firm.
  
  I have read that "there is nothing illegal about stock option backdating" many times on different websites and blogs. Thats pretty funny.
  
  I agree, there is nothing wrong with backdating the stock option. There is something very wrong with not accounting for it in your financial statements though.
  
  Put it this way, Steve Jobs lied about how well the company was doing when he talked to investors about Apple. Its that simple.

   

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  theMorons, Feb 12th, 2007 @ 4:20pm

  
  

  there's nothing illegal?

  you iFanboys need to live in reality. there IS something illegal about backdating and not reporting it. If you show a profit on your earnings report beacuse you didn't expense the backdating than it is cooking the books. Don't let the koolaid make you stupid.

   

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