Marketplace®

Daily business news and economic stories

Profit still Apple of shareholders’ eye

Apple remains in the SEC's sights for possible stock option backdating violations. Two of its shareholder groups want reform, but with profits soaring to the tune of 88 percent, it may be a hard sell. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports.

TEXT OF STORY

LISA NAPOLI: Today the day for Apple’s annual shareholder meeting and the talk won’t be all about the company’s 88 percent jump in profits. Ashley Milne-Tyte says two shareholder groups will focus in on the options backdating scandal.


ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: The two groups oversee investments for unions and pension funds.

Pat McGurn is with Institutional Shareholder Services. He says these groups want shareholders to vote for a new options system — a system that won’t leave room for executives to enrich themselves by fudging the date an option was granted so they can reap more rewards later.

PAT MCGURN: The goal of the proposal is really to fix the grant dates themselves. To make sure that the company has a predetermined schedule upon which they’re going to make the grants.

But Joshua Jaffee of The Deal says this proposal isn’t likely to win resounding approval.

JOSHUA JAFFEE: The reality is the company’s profits are growing so quickly, I think they’re gonna put those profits above any possible ethics violations that have happened at Apple.

He says most shareholders don’t want to put too much pressure on Steve Jobs, the visionary behind the company’s growth.

In New York, I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.

Related Topics

Tagged as: