Accounting scandal may eat at core of Apple's $3bn profits

By Maggie Holland
published

Computing giant Apple says it will have to reinstate figures since 2002 due to 'irregularities'

Apple has been forced to reinstate its financial earnings statements for the past four years, following on from an internal investigation into stock option grant fiddling.

This red-faced acknowledgement of accounting anomalies follows on from former Brocade chief executive Greg Reyes's court appearance this week for his alleged involvement in stock option fraud.

"...The Company today filed a Form 8-K stating that the financial statements and all earnings and press releases and similar communications issued by the Company relating to periods commencing on September 29, 2002 should therefore not be relied upon," the company said in a statement.

Since 2002, the computer giant has reported more than $3bn in profits. At present, it is unclear just how far from the truth these figures will appear after the investigation. Apple said it was keen to resolve the issues and file its results for the last quarter as quickly as possible.

"As Apple previously announced, an internal investigation discovered irregularities related to the issuance of certain stock option grants made between 1997 and 2001. A special committee of Apple's outside directors has hired independent counsel to perform an investigation, and the Company has informed the SEC. As a result of the ongoing investigation, the Company will delay the filing of its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 1, 2006," said the computer giant.

Maggie Holland
Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.