Apple finds no misconduct over options
Now that an internal investigation over Apple Computer Inc.’s stock-option practices has helped abate investor worries over Steve Jobs’ role as CEO, a key lingering concern will be the impact of pending earnings restatements.
Apple said Wednesday its three-month investigation did not uncover any misconduct of any current employees but did raise “serious concerns” over the accounting actions of two unnamed former officers.
The iPod and Macintosh maker also said its former chief financial officer, Fred Anderson, had resigned from the company’s board of directors.
Jobs — his position intact — apologized.
The probe found that Jobs knew that some option grants had been given favorable dates in “a few instances,” but he did not benefit from them and was not aware of the accounting implications, the company said.
•Boeing Co. said Thursday it delivered 100 commercial airplanes in the third quarter, the first time it has reached the century mark since 2002.
The total, up from 62 in the same period a year ago, leaves the world’s No. 2 maker of commercial planes behind Airbus needing a repeat performance of 100 deliveries in the fourth quarter to meet its full-year forecast of 395.
The last time Boeing delivered more planes in a three-month period was the second quarter of 2002, when the total of 112 reflected orders placed before the industry slowdown caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
•One day after talks ended over a potential alliance with General Motors Corp., a Nissan official said Thursday the automaker could be interested in another partnership.
“For the last year, we’ve been consistent in our view that an alliance could work with additional partners,” Simon Sproule, vice president of global communications for Nissan Motor Co. in Tokyo, said. “In terms of who that might be, that’s open.”
After three months of discussion, Nissan and Renault SA of France declined to pay a premium for reaping what GM said would have been a disproportionate share of the benefits, according to a joint statement issued by the companies.
•Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson was forced out Thursday, a month after he defied parent company Tribune Co.’s demand for what he considered potentially damaging staff cuts.
He is being succeeded by David D. Hiller, who has been publisher of the Chicago Tribune, the Tribune Co. said in a statement.
In a Web-posted story, the newspaper reported that Tribune had asked Johnson to resign.