Shareholder wins judge order to see Apple options records - report

[AppleInsider]

A California judge said this week he plans to order Apple Inc. to turn over board meeting minutes and historical records relating to the company's stock options accounting to an investor, reports the San Jose Mercury News.

At a hearing in San Jose on Monday, California Superior Court Judge Jack Komar said he would sign an order on Friday instructing the consumer electronics giant to provide the Boston Retirement Board with copies of meeting minutes of Apple's board of directors and board committees from 1997 to the present.

The retirement board is among the shareholder groups suing Apple for its historical stock options backdating practices. It's seeking the company documents as part of the suit, filed last year, so that it can better assess the responsibility of Apple's board of directors in the matter.

As part of his order, Judge Komar is also expected to grant the retirement board access to Apple records relating to how it accounted for the stock options it handed out over the past decade. However, the judge reportedly denied a request by the retirement board's executive officer to gain access to records of the company's own internal investigation into its executive backdating scandal.

Still, the Mercury News reports, Apple may be able to avoid disclosing certain records if it can prove to the judge that they are covered by attorney-client or some other privilege. And any documents that are turned over to retirement board will be under a protective order, meaning they can't be disclosed to any other party.

Following the judge's order Friday, Apple will have a week to comply.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[kresh]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Still, the Mercury News reports, Apple may be able to avoid disclosing certain records if it can prove to the judge that they are covered by attorney-client or some other privilege. And any documents that are turned over to retirement board will be under a protective order, meaning they can't be disclosed to any other party.

Why is Apple being so secretive? They are a publicly owned company and should be 100% transparent to the shareholders on matters of finance. It's not like they are being asked to reveal proprietary technical documents.

As the old saying goes, "Where there is smoke, there is fire". Just what is Apple hiding?

[studiomusic]

Originally Posted by kresh

Why is Apple being so secretive? They are a publicly owned company and should be 100% transparent to the shareholders on matters of finance. It's not like they are being asked to reveal proprietary technical documents.

As the old saying goes, "Where there is smoke, there is fire". Just what is Apple hiding?

Do you think the board doesn't talk about future products in the pipeline? Or marketing campaigns? Or salaries/bonuses etc...?

[Wildguess]

What could the Boston Retirement Board be unhappy about? It can't be the stock performance.This sounds more like somebody trying to knock down the stock.

[GQB]

I don't know whether this is ironic or pathetic.
Most corporations in this country are busy throwing insane amounts of money at chief executives for failing miserably.
Jobs (whatever you think of him) produces an organization that's firing on all cylinders, products that are leaving the competition in the dust, and stock valuation that's exploding while the rest of the market and industry are going into the toilet.
IMHO, they can't through ENOUGH money at him.

And I agree that this initiative has to be initiated by interests in the 'short' column.

[SpamSandwich]

I think Apple will be able to deflect most of this with confidentiality claims.

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by GQB

I don't know whether this is ironic or pathetic.
Most corporations in this country are busy throwing insane amounts of money at chief executives for failing miserably.
Jobs (whatever you think of him) produces an organization that's firing on all cylinders, products that are leaving the competition in the dust, and stock valuation that's exploding while the rest of the market and industry are going into the toilet.
IMHO, they can't through ENOUGH money at him.

And I agree that this initiative has to be initiated by interests in the 'short' column.

Spot on all the way. Give Steve another Jet if he wants one lol ... just keep my AAPL going up and my Macs, iPhones, Pods, ATV and OS X, and whatever else you can come up with, coming Steve

[ajhill]

As an AAPL shareholder I completely don't understand why people are working so hard to dig into this to PROTECT my interest. My interests are best served by the inquiry conducted by Apple and ACCEPTED by the SEC last year.

At the last shareholders meeting Steve Jobs basically said that the board agreed to hive him stock options at a certain date and price. The options that he ultimately received were less valuable than if they had been given immediately. The problem arises as to when they were authorized vs when they were issued.

All along Steve Jobs stands by the statement that the options he received were what they board had intended to give him in compensation for his work running the company.

Clearly Apple will not be back dating any option disbursements anymore. They have learned their lesson. The attention and negative press are more than enough of a punishment. At this point the argument is about as important as to ask if the options are invalid since Steve Jobs signed for them by crossing his "t" in his name from right to left, instead of from left to right. That's how silly this all is.

As a shareholder I wish all the people working on behalf of shareholders would just move on to the real abuses going on in our society.

Al

ps: By the way, those "concerned shareholders" who were most vocal at the shareholders meeting were the environmental wackos like Greenpease, and hacks representing Big Labor, i.e. Teamsters. All the votes to look into the stock option matter were resoundingly shot down by the majority of real shareholders.

[SpamSandwich]

The people suing probably shorted AAPL and now they want revenge!

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by studiomusic

Do you think the board doesn't talk about future products in the pipeline? Or marketing campaigns? Or salaries/bonuses etc...?

The stuff that is not relevant to the options scandal can be redacted.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by ajhill

As an AAPL shareholder I completely don't understand why people are working so hard to dig into this to PROTECT my interest.

Although it does not make me happy either as an AAPL shareholder, actually, the fund's behavior makes makes perfect sense. Its portfolio is diversified across numerous stocks, and Apple is only one slice of it. The benefits of signaling to the CEOs/Boards of other companies that they too are being watched and need to stay in line could matter a lot.

The point is, a judge agreed.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

The people suing probably shorted AAPL and now they want revenge!

I am not sure that it has anything at all to do with shorting -- funds, esp. retirement funds, have all kinds of restrictions on their ability to short-sell.