Caution: story made by spinmeisters
My view:
The whole Apple backdating saga looked and smelled like a political witch hunt to help prevent Apple growing to a position of power against the effective cartel of dominant companies that carve up the bulk of electronics based economy. To me the saddest thing was that Nancy Heinen (Apple legal counsel) had to sacrifice her career, probably just to keep Steve Jobs at Apple. That's politics. Ever since this brush with political corruption, Apple has bent over backwards to conduct themselves precisely correctly, which includes no unnecessary disclosures, no option grants, and deeply conservative guidance. They run a tight ship.
Option backdating was not illegal. In fact it happened more or less automatically unless you inconvenienced yourself. For example if the board approved a grant and the paperwork to execute it was completed a day later, then (as unexpectedly retrospectively announced and enforced by the SEC) that was a backdated grant. This "clarification" of "grant date" caught out nearly every tech company, but Apple were singled out for special attention by the SEC. (For years, new Microsoft employees were given options automatically priced at the lowest market price in their joining month. Also illegal, but we didn't hear much about that.)
It was always clear that if options were granted at a price different to the market price, then the difference must be properly expensed in the accounts. That wasn't done at Apple (or numerous other companies), and the CFO lost his job over it. At considerable expense the accounts at Apple and elsewhere have been re-worked ending with multi-year adjustments negligible in relation to the size of the business, and changing the details of when tax should have been paid.
The issue was whether Steve Jobs covertly manipulated grant dates to his own advantage and to the disadvantage of Apple Inc (which would have been illegal). It seems clear that (a) he didn't (everyone knew what being done and agreed it before the paperwork was done) and (b) he was additionally entitled to rely on his specialist officers, CFO Fred Anderson and legal counsel Nancy Heinen, to inform him if there were anything illegal about the procedure.
As regards the "Bullshit" comment; Steve Jobs may not be a saint, or even a nice person, and he may well be selfish and arrogant, but the rest is nonsense. How he comes across is a necessary part of being a person executing a plan to change the world, as declared in 1997:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USn5t5nQWU8
I hope I live long enough to read the memoirs of those who know what really happened in this incredible industry of ours...
Now lets hear some muck stirring about the SEC investigation of Dell Inc, which is still ongoing, and the connection between Forbes (publishers of the above story and Elevation Partners who are financing the Palm Pré.
Steve Jobs: 'I wanted respect, not backdated options'
