Apple said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that Mr Cook had asked to be excluded from a recently instituted company program through which employees can accumulate dividends on their restricted stock units that are still vesting. Asked why Mr Cook was doing this, Apple declined to comment beyond the filing. Mr Cook, who took over as chief executive from late co-founder Steve Jobs in August, has 1.125m outstanding restricted Apple shares that are vesting over the next 10 years. In January, Apple's board granted Mr Cook 1m restricted stock units for running the company during Mr Jobs' medical leaves and as a retention tool. Half of those units are due to vest in 2016 and the remainder are due to ... Continue reading →

SEC Staff Said to End Lehman Probe Without Recommending Action By Joshua Gallu - 2012-05-24T19:23:00Z U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigators have concluded their probe of possible financial fraud at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and determined that they will probably not recommend any enforcement action against the firm or its former executives, according to an excerpt of an internal agency memo. The agency has been grappling with the case for more than three years amid questions from lawmakers and investors as to whether Lehman misrepresented its financial health before filing the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history in September 2008. Under a heading reading “Activity in the Last Four Weeks,” the undated document reads, “The staff has concluded its investigation and determined that charges will likely ... Continue reading →

Enlarge image Jack Krumholtz In February, Facebook brought on Jack Krumholtz, who used to run Microsoft Corp.’s government affairs shop in Washington, Senate records show. Photo: Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg In February, Facebook brought on Jack Krumholtz, who used to run Microsoft Corp.’s government affairs shop in Washington, Senate records show. Photo: Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Prongay, an attorney at Glancy Binkow & Goldberg, talks about the lawsuit the firm has filed with a California court over Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering. He speaks with Cory Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." Bloomberg's Emily Chang also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg) May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Steven Spencer, a partner at SMB Capital, talks about the performance of Facebook Inc. stock and short-selling strategy. Spencer speaks with ... Continue reading →

Every year, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair wows us with the ingenuity of high school students. This year’s first place winner is particularly impressive. Jack Andraka, a 15-year-old student from Maryland, came up with a paper sensor that detects pancreatic cancer 168 times faster than current tests. It’s also 90% accurate, 400 times more sensitive, and 26,000 times less expensive than today’s methods. In short: It’s a lot better. Andraka was inspired to focus on pancreatic cancer because a friend’s brother was killed by the disease. "I became interested in early detection, did a ton of research, and came up with this idea," he says. Andraka (center) with the other winners.Andraka’s dip-stick sensor can test urine or blood for a certain protein (mesothelin) ... Continue reading →

Enlarge image Morgan Stanley’s Gorman Said to Join Facebook Call on IPO Price Facebook shares tumbled 16 percent through yesterday. Facebook shares tumbled 16 percent through yesterday. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg May 23 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Prongay, an attorney at Glancy Binkow & Goldberg, talks about the lawsuit the firm has filed with a California court over Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering. He speaks with Cory Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." Bloomberg's Emily Chang also speaks. (Source: Bloomberg) Ryan Cefalu, who lives with his wife and two kids in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, saw in Facebook Inc. (FB)’s much-anticipated initial public offering a chance to buffer his retirement fund. His expectations fizzled along with the stock within the first minutes of trading. “It’s disheartening to know ... Continue reading →

By David Benoit and Janet Paskin There are fresh blows being traded in Wall Street�s version of the Hatfields and McCoys: Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange. As the WSJ and others have reported, NYSE has reached out to Facebook about switching exchanges, which would be a stunning blow only months after Nasdaq landed one of the most hyped IPOs of all time. After glitches struck the open and Nasdaq now admits it would have stopped the IPO if it new the full extent of problems, NYSE seems poised to loudly declare its human presence is safer than Nasdaq’s land of computers. Among the 56 IPOs that have been filed in the past six months, the two knotted with 25 listings each, with four ... Continue reading →

I established a Facebook account in 2008. My motivation was ignoble: I wanted to distribute my journalism more widely. I have acquired since then just over four thousand “friends”—in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, the Middle East, and of course, closer to home. I have discovered the appeal of Facebook’s community—for example, the extraordinary emotional support that swells in virtual space when people come together online around a friend’s illness or life celebrations. Through its bedrock appeals to friendship, community, public identity, and activism—and its commercial exploitation of these values—Facebook is an unprecedented synthesis of corporate and public spaces. The corporation’s social contract with users is ambitious, yet neither its governance system nor its young ruler seem trustworthy. Then came this month’s initial public offering of stock—a ... Continue reading →

Warren Buffett’s letter his editors and publishers May 23, 2012 To the Publishers and Editors of Berkshire Hathaway’s Daily Newspapers: Until recently, Berkshire has owned only one daily newspaper, The Buffalo News, purchased in 1977. In a month or so, we will own 26 dailies. I’ve loved newspapers all of my life — and always will. My dad, when attending the University of Nebraska, was editor of The Daily Nebraskan. (I have copies ofthe papers he edited in 1924.) He met my mother when she applied for a job as a reporter at the paper. Her father owned a small paper in West Point, Nebraska and my mother worked at various jobs at the paper in her teens, even mastering the operation of a linotype ... Continue reading →

In this edition of “In the Boardroom with Lucy Marcus,” Axel Threlfall talks to Lucy about the “Shareholder Spring.” If the past couple of weeks of annual general meetings (AGMs) around the world haven’t sent a strong signal to boards about the way investors and other stakeholders are feeling, it is hard to know what will. Remuneration levels for CEOs and members of the C-suite have been a hot button issue for Barclays, Aviva, UBS, Citigroup, AstraZeneca, Shell and other companies. In meeting after meeting, investors stood up to challenge remuneration committees about their decisions and decision-making process. Stakeholders also asked some pointed questions about corporate social responsibility. With Apple and Foxconn on their mind, they asked about a wide spectrum of areas from global ... Continue reading →