It’s interesting to see that the Silicon Valley-ites seem to have reacted to the back-dating of stock options scandal by indulging in a sort of linguistic denial, using words which suggest that back-dating stock options is some strange alien affliction which has come from outer space, rather than the result of anything they've done.
The CEO of Vitesse, Chris Gardner, talked about the “stock option back-dating challenge”, as though he was rising, rather nobly, to deal with some threatening external phenomenon which had, quite unfairly, impacted his organisation.
Vitesse has said the back-dating practice could cost the company some $120m. It is to re-state its profits in Q1 2008.
Atmel is in for $125m drop when it restates profits in 2008. Maxim has seen its CEO, Jack Gifford, depart, has been de-listed from the Nasdaq, and won’t file new financials until Q1 2008, about a year and a half since the last filing.
Others involved have been: Broadcom, Cirrus Logic, Apple, Microtune, MIPS, KLA-Tencor, Altera, Sanmina-SCI, Nvidia, AMCC, Marvell, Rambus, PMC-Sierra, Asyst and Semtech.
So far, only one CEO, the CEO of Brocade, has seen the inside of a Federal Penitentiary. The SEC seems inclined to do deals to let them off the hook.
Linear Technology execs maintained the Valley convention that back-dating is an obscure affliction caused by some alien virus, in asserting: “We’ve been given a clean bill of health by the SEC.”
Subscribe to this blog's feed