Well, the rumblings around allegations of stock "back-dating" at Apple has officially become a scandal. Former Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson, who served from 1996-2004, has resigned form the company's board of directors, reports The Street. He served from the time of his retirement in June 2004.
> "I apologize to Apple's shareholders and employees for these problems, which happened on my watch. They are completely out of character for Apple," Jobs said in a statement. "We will now work to resolve the remaining issues as quickly as possible and to put the proper remedial measures in place to ensure that this never happens again."
The announcement came at the end of an internal investigation by Apple concluded stock options were back-dated on 15 occasions between 1997-2002, a truly critical era in Steve Jobs's second tenure leading the company, beginning before the introduction of the iMac and concluding after the first iPods hit the street. Jobs has acknowledged he knew of the practice, but claims not to have understood its implications. Which wouldn't be surprising – all of his business education has come through experience, not through any kind of formal program, but it's still troubling.
This is actually a really big deal, and Apple will likely have to restate its earnings at almost every step. The good news, if there is any, is that the current leadership team has been cleared of wrong-doing by the investigation. For now. The article is a little wonky, as it says something about late Thursday. I'll assume it's a typo until a fuller report is released.
This is a rough time for computer-makers. HP's spying scandal, Apple and others with option back-dating, everyone with exploding laptop batteries... Keep your noses clean, all right?
(Via Digg. Fred Anderson photo via Macgadget.de.)
