Suit on Job’s Options Is So Over

Apple won dismissal yesterday of a lawsuit claiming that company directors and managers, including the chief exec, Jobs (aka The Jerk) , lied to shareholders about the backdating of option awards.

Judge Jeremy D. Fogel of Federal District Court in San Jose, Calif., said in his ruling that he dismissed the suit because it was based on statements made more than three years before the case was filed.

Apple, maker of the iPod and iPhone music and video players, said last year that it backdated 6,428 stock-option grants issued from 1997 to 2002, according to the order. Changing the date on a grant can provide added gains.

Apple argued that the suit was “time barred” because it was not filed within the required three years after the statements the case cites were issued. Judge Fogel said in his order that he would allow shareholders to file the suit again if they could show Apple filed false statements about the option awards on or after July 30, 2003.

The lawsuit was filed June 30, 2006.

Judge Fogel dismissed a similar suit last Wednesday, suggesting shareholders could pursue their case by joining the suit he dismissed yesterday, a derivative lawsuit by Apple investors on behalf of the company, accusing directors and officers of breaching corporate duties.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/technology/20apple.html?ref=technology