The Financial Times today published a report that in 2001 Apple CEO Steve Jobs received $7.5 million in stock options without the required board of directors authorization, and that corporate records were later falsified to show that the full board had in fact approved the options grant, as Apple’s internal procedures require. A published this afternoon suggested that there is very little lkkelihood that this issue will lead to Jobs getting dumped at Apple, and I expect that that is correct. It is likely, however, that things will get worse for both Apple and Jobs before they get better on this issue. The FT story revealed that the SEC is continuing to look into the options issues qat Apple. Stay tuned on this one.
UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog reported earlier today that Jobs has hired Mark Pomerantz of the Paul Weiss firm to represent him in the options probe. Pomerantz most notably hired investment banker Frank Quattrone. Certainly a sign of how possibly serious this issue is.