Microtune to pay $8.5 million for stock options misdeeds
By Colleen Taylor -- EDN, January 23, 2007
Microtune Inc. today announced that it has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) its delayed reports, clearing the company of any SEC trouble, but at a $8.5 million price.
The forms -- reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2006, and September 30, 2006; an amended annual report on Form 10-K/A for 2005; and an amended quarterly report on Form 10-Q/A for the quarter ended March 31, 2006 -- were delayed by Microtune's investigation into its stock option granting practices, amid the industry-wide crackdown on illegal stock options backdating.
The Plano, Texas-based RF chipmaker’s investigation turned up irregularities -- and the company had to pay for its past mistakes. The total incremental non-cash, stock-based compensation charges the company incurred from the findings were approximately $8.5 million, Microtune announced today.
The company said it is now current in its SEC reporting obligations and, as a result, believes that it has satisfied all of the conditions of the Nasdaq listing qualifications panel for the continued listing of its common stock on the Nasdaq global market.
"We are very pleased that the Audit Committee has completed its investigation and that we have completed the restatement of our past financial statements," James A. Fontaine, president and CEO of Microtune, said in a statement. "We are eager to now concentrate all of our efforts on the opportunities we see in 2007 and beyond."
Microtune is not alone in having to pay for stock options misdeeds. Last month, Vitesse Semiconductor revealed it is set to pay some $120 million to make up for the backdating uncovered by its internal review. Broadcom Corp. is also among those companies paying for past mistakes and expects to fork over a whopping $1.5 billion compensation expense.
