Free Republic

As we mentioned in yesterday’s wrap-up, we had a heck of a good time buying Apple while everyone else was selling and selling Apple while everyone else was buying over at the member’s site. Today we are either being handed a huge gift by AAPL or we are on the road to doom but I am very likely to take out our callers this morning back near yesterday’s lows as we will have this matter resolved tomorrow and we may get a chance to sell them all over again before the day is up. If not, perhaps we will just...

Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, was handed 7.5m stock options in 2001 without the required authorisation from the company’s board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter. Records that purported to show a full board meeting had taken place to approve Mr Jobs’ remuneration, as required by Apple’s procedures, were later falsified. These are now among the pieces of evidence being weighed by the Securities and Exchange Commission as it decides whether to pursue a case against the company or any individuals over the affair, according to these people.

It must be some consolation for Apple Computer that the company's annual report is going to be published during the slowest news week of the year. Given the uncomfortable admissions about its past stock options practices -- and the cost to the company -- that Apple will have to make in the delayed SEC filing due by Friday, less public attention is probably a good thing. But the lull is unlikely to last long. According to people with knowledge of Apple's situation, federal prosecutors are looking closely at stock option administration documents that were apparently falsified by company officials to...