Backdating Settlement in Motion
by John Paczkowski
Posted on February 6, 2009 at 5:17 AM PT
Earlier this week Research in Motion revealed that “certain of its officers and directors” had reached a settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission over backdating stock options. Now we know who those certain officers and directors are: Co-Chief Executives Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Chief Financial Officer Dennis Kavelman, and Finance Director Angelo Loberto. Together the four will pay more than $74.5 million to settle an options-backdating case under an agreement that also requires Balsillie to step down from the BlackBerry maker’s board for at least a year. “We are very pleased to put this behind us and get back to work,” Balsillie said after the hearing. “We’ve made mistakes and we’ve done absolutely everything we think appropriate to get our governance practices where they are for the type of company we are.”
RIM (RIMM) has also made an offer of settlement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is conducting its own investigation of the company’s stock option granting practices. No word yet on the SEC’s reply.
