CNET restatement goes all the way back to 1996

January 30, 2007

As a result of an internal investigation into options pricing, CNET has restated earnings going back to 1996.  Total charge was just north of $105 million.

I’m pretty surprised, because I always thought CNET handled stock options in a very above-board and well-documented way.  I remember my tax guy one year actually mentioned how well done the CNET options were.  He said he’d done taxes for people at other companies where the stock grants paperwork was a mess, but CNET’s was tip-top.

Judging from the re-statement, things for the executives were a bit less above-board than for us plebes.  But the number of grants affected (some 55% of all grants issued before December 2005) makes it sound like at least some of the bad grants must have been to regular grunts.  That large a number can’t be all just for grants given to executives, can it?

At least it’s over now, they have hopefully gotten the whole stock option mess behind them and can focus on growing traffic.