Fired Apple lawyer charged by SEC with insider trading
A report by CNBC this morning says that Gene Levoff, former senior director of corporate law and corporate secretary for Apple, traded AAPL using nonpublic information.
SEC backs shareholder’s call for vote on accelerating diversity among Apple’s directors & senior execs
Update: Apple has decided to include the resolution, but recommends voting against it, arguing that its existing diversity policies cover appointments at all levels within the company.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has said that a resolution submitted by an Apple investor to accelerate diversity on the company’s board and among senior execs should be included in proxy materials sent to shareholders. Bloomberg reports that proposal was prompted by a conversation the shareholder had with his teenage son.
The proposal for an “accelerated recruitment policy” was submitted in September by Antonio Avian Maldonado II, who owns 645 Apple shares. He said he was spurred to act after looking at photos of the directors with his teenage son, who asked him why nearly everyone was white.
Apple rejected the proposal, stating that it was an attempt to micromanage recruitment. Apple told the SEC that it was actively trying to attract minorities but “has no power to ensure that its recruits will accept offers.” The SEC, however, does not accept Apple’s position …
Apple starts offering proxy access to give shareholders more power over board of directors
The Wall Street Journal reports this evening that Apple has amended its bylaws to make it easier for long-time shareholders to nominate to the company’s board of directors. This makes Apple the latest company to adopt what is commonly referred to as “proxy access.”
Apple to hand back $4.2M to LAUSD to settle failed ‘iPad for every student’ program
Apple has agreed to repay $4.2M to settle a claim by the L.A. Unified School District over the disastrous attempt to put an iPad into the hands of every student, reports the Los Angeles Times. It was first reported back in April that the LAUSD might take legal action against Apple to recoup the money spent on iPads for the program. Apple had initially expected to earn $30M from the first phase, a number that would have reached around a quarter of a billion dollars if the rollout had been completed as originally planned.
The first sign of trouble emerged when students managed to bypass the restrictions designed to ensure the devices could be used only for school work, but that was only the start. The LAUSD was accused of having miscalculated the cost of the program, resulting in its suspension and later abandonment.
Both the FBI and the SEC were called in to investigate allegations of corruption, and a federal review concluded that the entire project had been doomed from the start.
The Board of Education is expected to vote on whether or not to finalize Apple’s settlement offer. If so, nearly all the money repaid by Apple will be used to buy computers through a fresh program.
Image: Huffington Post
Tim Cook’s email to Jim Cramer may have violated SEC rules, say lawyers
The email Apple CEO Tim Cook sent to CNBC analyst Jim Cramer, and which was read on the air, may have violated Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, according to lawyers speaking to MarketWatch. The regulations are designed to ensure that information that may impact a company’s share price is made available to the public in a fair and open way, rather than privately disclosed to particular individuals or entities.
Cook’s email revealed that the growth in iPhone activations “has actually accelerated over the past few weeks, and we have had the best performance of the year for the App Store in China during the last 2 weeks” – information that Apple had not previously disclosed …
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Just when you thought the failed LA schools iPad program couldn’t get any messier, it did …
We learned yesterday that the Los Angeles Unified School District may sue Apple for “millions of dollars” following the collapse of its plans to provide every student with an iPad. The mess eventually led to an FBI investigation and a federal review.
The latest development, as ever reported by the LA Times, says that the program is now the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into whether funds were misused in the $1.3B project …
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Apple hires Dolby’s technology chief to bolster audio and display technologies
Continuing its high-level executive hiring spree, Apple has recruited Dolby Executive Vice President Mike Rockwell to become an executive in its hardware division, 9to5Mac has learned. According to a source, Rockwell has likely been hired to bolster the audio and display performance of future Apple products, which could include anything from next-generation Apple monitors to professional audio/video editing tools to speakers. Rockwell’s LinkedIn profile confirms he joined Apple in February but does not specify his role.
GT Advanced’s recent trading activity under investigation by SEC following bankruptcy filing
GT Advanced disclosed on Thursday that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeking information about the sapphire glass maker’s trading activity since January 2013 after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. GT Advanced’s latest Form 8-K report claims that the company is fully cooperating with the SEC during its investigation.
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Apple’s retail head Angela Ahrendts has stock withheld for tax purposes (Updated)
SEC filings show that Angela Ahrendts had half of her first allocation of AAPL stock withheld on 1st June – the day it vested, and just one month after joining the company – reports ComputerWorld.
According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ahrendts received 16,264 shares in Apple stock when it vested June 1 […]
Ahrendts sold 8,331 shares that same day for a pre-tax total of $5,273,523.
The full value of her stock, which is likely to vest (become eligible for sale) over several years, will add up to $78.5M at the current share price. Her total compensation in her final year as CEO of Burberry was $4.4M – though she did also get a clothing allowance of $42,000 and a car allowance of $30,000 (only at a fashion company could you get more to spend on clothes than a car …).
Selling half your stock at the very first opportunity doesn’t seem to send the best of signals a month into the role, but I guess she needs to buy a house out in the Valley and those aren’t exactly cheap right now.
The withholding of the shares came just over a week before a 7-to-1 stock split, on Monday. The stock split should make AAPL shares more attractive to smaller investors, a shift that could make the share price more volatile.
Via Fortune
Update: These shares were withheld for tax purposes by Apple not sold on the open market
Apple extends exclusive rights to Liquidmetal in consumer products to Feb 2015
Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean watch with Liquidmetal
Apple has extended its rights to the metal alloy material that it originally licensed from Liquidmetal Technologies in 2010 for exclusive use in consumer electronics products. The proof comes from a recent filing with the SEC:
On May 19, 2014, Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc. (the “Company”) and Apple Inc. (“Apple”) entered into an second amendment (the “Second Amendment”) to the Master Transaction Agreement that was originally entered into on August 5, 2010 (the “MTA”) and amended on June 15, 2012 (the “First Amendment”). Under the MTA and the First Amendment, the Company was obligated to contribute to Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC, a special purpose subsidiary of the Company, all intellectual property acquired or developed by the Company from August 5, 2010 through February 5, 2014, and all intellectual property held by Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC was exclusively licensed on a perpetual basis to Apple for the field of use of consumer electronic products under the MTA. Under the Second Amendment, the parties agreed to amend the MTA and the First Amendment to extend the February 5, 2014 date to February 5, 2015.
Up until now Apple has tested the material in its SIM card ejector tool that came with previous generation iPhones, but several rumors in recent years have claimed it could take advantage of Liquidmetal for batteries, screws or other components of its products. However, back in 2012, one of Liquidmetal’s inventors noted that Apple was likely still three to five years away from using the material on a large scale in products:
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SEC finds Apple didn’t create “the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” after all
A four-month long investigation into Apple’s tax affairs by the Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared the company of any wrong-doing in regard to the way the company accounted for taxes in respect of its overseas operations.
A Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing into Apple’s tax affairs had previously accused the company of seeking “the Holy Grail of tax avoidance” over cash held overseas. The hearing proved anti-climatic, with no wrong-doing established, and the investigation handed off to the SEC. The SEC has now closed the case.
Tim Cook made an unequivocal statement during the Senate hearing that Apple used no tax gimmicks …
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Apple’s SEC filing reveals Feb. 27 annual shareholder meeting, Cook’s 2012 compensation, and Human Rights committee proposal
Apple filed documents today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to announce the next annual shareholder meeting held at the company’s headquarters on Feb. 27, 2013.
The proxy statement revealed CEO Tim Cook’s compensation in 2012 equaled less than $4.2 million, but it also detailed six proposals shareholders would vote on at the meeting. The notable proposals include the election of the company’s board and whether Apple should have a “Board Committee on Human Rights”.
Cook’s 2012 compensation included $1.36 million in salary with no stock awards and a $2.8 million incentive plan, where as his 2011 compensation totaled $378 million. However, last year’s mammoth figure included $376.2 million in stock awards that he’ll earn over a decade.
As for the board, Apple seeks to re-elect Cook, Chairman Arthur Levinson, and directors Al Gore, William Campbell, Millard Drexler, Robert Iger, Andrea Jung, and Ronald Sugar. Apple’s board decidely recommended in the filing that shareholders vote against a proposal to have a Human Rights committee.
The proposal originated from common stock owner John Harrington, who owns at least $2,000 in market value stock, and he wishes to create a separate board committee on Human Rights that would “review the implications of company policies, above and beyond matters of legal compliance, for the human rights of individuals in the US and worldwide.”
The board said the committee isn’t necessary, because Apple is “committed to the highest standards of social responsibility and human rights wherever we do business.”
As for details on the executives’ salaries, check out the table below from the SEC filing:
