The Alter­native Minimum Tax is getting a lot of coverage in the US since changes made by Reagan in the 80s are causing it to affect 80% of “families with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 to $100,000,” in other words, a lot of frickin’ families. When the tax was first intro­duced in 1969, it […]

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Apple has informed investors that due to the ongoing inves­ti­gation into their options backdating problems, they may be removed from the Nasdaq’s special “Global Select Market.” How select, you may ask? Well, a mere 1/3 of companies listed on the Nasdaq are privi­leged enough to make the cut. Wait, was that a typo? One-third of companies […]

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The Ontario Securities Commission has launched a probe of Research In Motion’s stock option practices. An OSC spokesperson said the review was launched in early October, which is not long after the company announced it would have to restate past finan­cials because of its options accounting. Another tech company is having diffi­culties with their options […]

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Two terms, “spring-loading” and “bullet-dodging” have reminded me of the tendency in business to put a positive spin on negative practices. Spring-loading refers to the practice of granting options immedi­ately before releasing good news that will likely increase the stock price, resulting in options that are not in the money techni­cally when granted, but are, […]

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Another tech company has announced it is conducting internal inves­ti­ga­tions into their options grant practices. This time it is Novell, a company known for its NetWare network operating system and more recently as a Linux company. Novell said its audit committee began the inves­ti­gation because of news about irreg­u­lar­ities in the way that dozens of […]

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