Apple, Jobs, Others Sued Again Over Options

Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on July 02, 2008

Apple, and current and former execs are the subject of another lawsuit revolving around the old kerfuffle around the stock options backdating mess that ensnared the company a year or two ago. The latest suit appears to be a second try by some of the same plantiffs show saw their first suit dismissed.

As Information Week tells it, the suit alleges that Jobs, former CFO Fred Anderson, former general counsel Nancy Heinen, and Apple directors Jerome York, William Campbell, Millard Drexler and Arthur Levinson participated in a scheme to file false financial statements in order to conceal executive compensation by backdating of stock options.

I don’t know what compensation they intend to argue occurred. Apple has already thoroughly investigated the matter, and found that none of the options in question really benefited anyone, least of all Steve Jobs, whose options were canceled while they were under water and replaced with restricted stock grants.

Meanwhile, how much was actually involved? $84 million was the amount of Apple’s restatement, which is, for a $24 billion company the equivalent of a rounding error. The only reason for seeking a shareholder lawsuit at this point, is to wring Apple for a “go away” settlement that would do nothing more than make the lawyers in the case rich. Enough already.

A similar effort to sue Apple, this on by the New York City Employees Retirement System met a similar when a judge said the $42 billion pension fund hadn’t suffered any economic harm.

Yet, I’m still going to be really interested when the SEC’s case against former General Counsel Nancy Heinen comes to trial. There are, at the very least, differing versions of events.

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