SEC Drops Backdating Case Against Former Pixar CFO Mather
21 Agosto 2009 - 6:41PM
Noticias Dow Jones
The Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped a stock
option backdating case against Ann Mather, the former chief
financial officer of Pixar Animation Studios and a current Google
Inc. (GOOG) board member.
The SEC last week sent Mather a letter saying it was no longer
pursuing the matter, a spokesman for Mather said on Friday.
In April 2008, a regional SEC office recommended that the agency
take civil action against Mather, accusing her of improper dating
of stock-option grants at the filmmaker when it was still an
independent company. Pixar now is owned by Walt Disney Co.
(DIS).
An SEC spokesman declined to comment on the matter. An
enforcement official in the SEC's Los Angeles office couldn't be
immediately reached for comment.
Mather, who had denied the allegations, was among executives at
more than 140 companies caught up in backdating scandals in recent
years.
Backdating involves retroactively setting the value of a stock
option grant at a low price in order to increase the value of the
grant. The practice, which can understate a company's expenses and
exaggerate profits, could lead to civil or criminal charges if not
properly disclosed to shareholders.
Disney said in November 2006 that the SEC was looking into
Pixar's options-granting practices. The studio closed its own
inquiry a few months later, concluding that backdating had occurred
prior to its acquisition of the company and that no one currently
associated with Disney had engaged in intentional misconduct.
Those findings also appeared to exonerate Steve Jobs, the former
chief executive officer of Pixar and current CEO of Apple Inc.
(AAPL).
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Pixar's
options-granting practices were in place before Mather joined the
company in 1999 and that the company's board, auditors and outside
legal counselors were aware of the practices.
-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118;
scott.morrison@dowjones.com
(Sarah Lynch contributed to this story)