As
the stock option cloud over Apple Computer Inc.
darkened, investors tried to determine Friday whether
the company’s popular products are powerful
enough to overcome the potential accounting and
legal risks facing the maker of the iPod and the
Macintosh.
The
possibility that the improper handling of employee
stock options might erase some of Apple's past profits
or, even worse, plunge its renowned CEO, Steve Jobs,
into a legal morass spooked some investors. Apple
shares shed $3.40, or 4.9 percent, to $66.19 in afternoon
trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Besides jumbling
its past earnings and raising worries about Jobs'
possible role in the scandal, Apple’s stock
option troubles could lead to other complications.
While
it reviews possible revisions to its past profits,
Apple expects to miss a deadline for filing its most
recent quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. If the delay is long enough, regulators
could try to delist Apple’s stock from Nasdaq,
although the chances of that happening are considered
slim. |
