B&N misdated $45.5 million in stock options

B&N misdated $45.5 million in stock options

Apr 05 2007

During the past 10 years, Barnes & Noble misdated and improperly backdated stock options to the tune of $45.5 million, a special committee formed by the company to investigate the issue has found. B&N will make changes on its balance sheet to reflect that amount; B&N.com, for a time an independent company but again a subsidiary of B&N, will take a gross charge of $10 million. The company issued a summary of the special committee's findings yesterday. The committee emphasized that it "did not find any intent to defraud or fraudulent misconduct by any individual or group of individuals" and that the dating and pricing practices were applied "uniformly" to the more than 3,300 board members, senior management and employees who received stock grants during the decade. B&N is one of more than 100 companies whose stock option practices have interested the Securities and Exchange Commission in the past year and led to at least 10 criminal prosecutions.

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