Apple in Jobs stock option probe

Apple said it has "discovered irregularities" related to the issuance of certain stock option grants made between 1997 and 2001, including one grant to CEO Steve Jobs.

The company noted that the grant to Jobs was later cancelled and that he received no financial gain as part of the options grant in question.

Jobs said in a statement: "Apple is a quality company, and we are proactively and transparently disclosing what we have discovered to the SEC. We are focused on resolving these issues as quickly as possible."

The company said that a special committee of its outside directors has hired independent counsel to perform an investigation and that the company has informed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Apple said its executives will refrain from commenting further on this matter until the independent investigation is concluded.

Separately, CA said this week that it may need to restate earnings from past years, in part because of the way it handled stock option grants to employees. The software maker said in a statement that prior to fiscal year 2002, it "did not communicate stock option grants to individual employees in a timely manner."

It said they the delays, amounting to up to two years, were between when grants were approved and when they were notified.

CA said that although it has not completed its review, it expects the non-cash expense it will need to record for fiscal 2005 and fiscal 2006 to be less than $20m per year. The charges for fiscal 2002 through fiscal 2004 could be in the range of $40m to $100m per year, on a pretax basis.

CA also said that as it has continued to examine its software licensing practices, it estimates that it has "understated subscription revenue" in the years before fiscal 2006 by about $40m.

Any adjustments it makes to past years will result in reductions in subscription revenue for future quarters through approximately 2011. Any new adjustments would be in addition to a previous restatement of earnings the company made in October 2005.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com