Administration July 3, 2008

Apple Hit with New Backdating Lawsuit

July 3, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Two shareholders of computermaker Apple have sued chief executive Steve Jobs and other company officials for not disclosing the company's stock option backdating practices.
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A Cnet.com news report said plaintiffs Martin Vogel and Kenneth Mahoney filed the latest case in U.S. District Court in San Jose last week.

Citing a report in InformationWeek, Cnet said Vogel and Mahoney claim that the options backdating chopped $7 billion worth of shareholder value from Apple’s stock in the two weeks following the June 2006 disclosure that the company had discovered backdating in its past.

Apple has admitted that the company backdated certain option grants, including two awarded to Jobs (See  Apple Reports Irregularities in Stock Option Grants ).

Federal and state authorities have thus far declined to prosecute Jobs, or any current members of Apple, after an internal investigation cleared the CEO, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit against Nancy Heinen, Apple’s former general counsel, for allegedly covering up the backdating (See  Report: Ex-Apple CFO Works Out Backdating Allegations ).

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