Shareholder wins judge order to see Apple options records - report
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.
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.
11 Comments
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?
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...?
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.
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.
I think Apple will be able to deflect most of this with confidentiality claims.