The Effect of the Options Backdating Scandal on the Stock-Price Performance of 110 Accused Companies

The Effect of the Options Backdating Scandal on the Stock-Price Performance of 110 Accused Companies PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 19

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Book Description
Since academic scholars and the Wall Street Journal reported widespread evidence indicating that option grants to executives were backdated, an avalanche of news stories followed documenting this ever-widening corporate scandal. In this study we ask: quot;How do disclosures of backdating affect shareholder value?quot; We closely examine 110 companies listed in the Wall Street Journal's Perfect Payday webpage, collecting all news stories related to options backdating. We find that shareholders of these 110 companies suffer on average significant stock-price declines, ranging between 20% and 50%. Moreover, these losses do not seem to be due to temporary overreactions (at least so far). The negative 20% abnormal return translates into total dollar losses of well over $100 billion. The negative 50% abnormal return translates to approximately one-quarter trillion dollars of lost shareholder value. There is no evidence that this decline is driven by temporary overreaction, judging by the average performance of these 110 companies over a nearly 2 year period. We are aware of no analysts, scholars or commentators predicting that such massive losses in shareholder value would result from options backdating problems.

The Effect of the Options Backdating Scandal on the Stock-Price Performance of 110 Accused Companies

The Effect of the Options Backdating Scandal on the Stock-Price Performance of 110 Accused Companies PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 19

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since academic scholars and the Wall Street Journal reported widespread evidence indicating that option grants to executives were backdated, an avalanche of news stories followed documenting this ever-widening corporate scandal. In this study we ask: quot;How do disclosures of backdating affect shareholder value?quot; We closely examine 110 companies listed in the Wall Street Journal's Perfect Payday webpage, collecting all news stories related to options backdating. We find that shareholders of these 110 companies suffer on average significant stock-price declines, ranging between 20% and 50%. Moreover, these losses do not seem to be due to temporary overreactions (at least so far). The negative 20% abnormal return translates into total dollar losses of well over $100 billion. The negative 50% abnormal return translates to approximately one-quarter trillion dollars of lost shareholder value. There is no evidence that this decline is driven by temporary overreaction, judging by the average performance of these 110 companies over a nearly 2 year period. We are aware of no analysts, scholars or commentators predicting that such massive losses in shareholder value would result from options backdating problems.

Economic Crisis and Crime

Economic Crisis and Crime PDF Author: Mathieu Deflem
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 0857248014
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Addresses a variety of issues related to economic crisis in the broadest sense of the term, involving diverse national and international contexts, historical epochs, and a range of problems related to economic life. This title tackles criminologically relevant questions in connection with crime/deviance and/or the control thereof.

Unpacking Backdating

Unpacking Backdating PDF Author: David I. Walker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 64

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Book Description
The corporate stock option backdating scandal has dominated business page headlines since the summer of 2006. The SEC has launched investigations of more than one hundred companies with respect to the timing and pricing of stock options granted during the boom years of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the number of firms caught up in the scandal continues to increase. This Article contributes to our understanding of the backdating phenomenon by analyzing the economics of backdating and the characteristics of the firms under investigation. Its main points are the following: First, given the high volatilities of the stocks of the technology companies that dominate the list of firms under investigation and the fact that options granted to executives and employees typically may not be exercised for several years, press reports that focus on the size of the strike price quot;discountsquot; achieved by backdating significantly overstate the impact on the value per share of backdated options. In some cases, reducing the strike price by a dollar per share by backdating increased the Black-Scholes value of the option by less than twenty cents per share. Second, backdating dramatically reduced the apparent value of options, which reduced the total level of executive compensation reported to shareholders. However, because the size of executive stock option grants often is determined by first establishing the value to be delivered and then quot;backing intoquot; the number of shares to be covered by the option, reducing the apparent value of option shares may have substantially increased the size and economic value of some backdated executive option grants. Third, comparison of semiconductor firms under investigation for backdating with peer companies that are not suggests an association between backdating and the use of options in compensating non-executive employees. This Article considers the effects of and several possible explanations for backdating non-executive options, including reducing apparent rank and file compensation. Finally, this Article argues that the backdating phenomenon is not an accounting scandal. Backdating has accounting consequences, but it is unlikely to have been accounting driven.

Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty

Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty PDF Author: Frederick Funston
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470617489
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
A new book to help senior executives and boards get smart about risk management The ability of businesses to survive and thrive often requires unconventional thinking and calculated risk taking. The key is to make the right decisions—even under the most risky, uncertain, and turbulent conditions. In the new book, Surviving and Thriving in Uncertainty: Creating the Risk Intelligent Enterprise, authors Rick Funston and Steve Wagner suggest that effective risk taking is needed in order to innovate, stay competitive, and drive value creation. Based on their combined decades of experience as practitioners, consultants, and advisors to numerous business professionals throughout the world, Funston and Wagner discuss the adoption of 10 essential and practical skills, which will improve agility, resilience, and realize benefits: Challenging basic business assumptions can help identify "Black Swans" and provide first-mover advantage Defining the corporate risk appetite and risk tolerances can help reduce the risk of ruin. Anticipating potential causes of failure can improve chances of survival and success through improved preparedness. Factoring in velocity and momentum can improve speed of response and recovery. Verifying sources and the reliability of information can improve insights for decision making and thus decision quality. Taking a longer-term perspective can aid in identifying the potential unintended consequences of short-term decisions.

Earnings Management

Earnings Management PDF Author: Joshua Ronen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387257691
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 587

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Book Description
This book is a study of earnings management, aimed at scholars and professionals in accounting, finance, economics, and law. The authors address research questions including: Why are earnings so important that firms feel compelled to manipulate them? What set of circumstances will induce earnings management? How will the interaction among management, boards of directors, investors, employees, suppliers, customers and regulators affect earnings management? How to design empirical research addressing earnings management? What are the limitations and strengths of current empirical models?

The Impact of the Options Backdating Scandal on Shareholders

The Impact of the Options Backdating Scandal on Shareholders PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 57

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Book Description
The revelation that scores of firms engaged in the illegal manipulation of stock options' grant dates (i.e. quot;backdatingquot;) captured much public attention. The evidence indicates that the consequences stemming from management misconduct and misrepresentation are of first-order importance in this context as shareholders of firms accused of backdating experience large negative, statistically significant abnormal returns. Furthermore, shareholders' losses are directly related to firms' likely culpability and the magnitude of the resulting restatements, despite the limited cash flow implications. And, tellingly, the losses are attenuated when tainted management of less successful firms is more likely to be replaced, whereas relatively many firms become takeover targets. We believe this evidence is relevant to the ongoing debate about the economic relevance of seemingly inconsequential corporate misdeeds, in general, and option grants manipulation, in particular.

Some Observations on the Stock Option Backdating Scandal of 2006

Some Observations on the Stock Option Backdating Scandal of 2006 PDF Author: David I. Walker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
The corporate stock option backdating scandal has dominated business page headlines during the summer of 2006. The SEC is currently investigating more than seventy-five companies with respect to the timing and pricing of stock options granted during the boom years of the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the number of firms caught up in the scandal seems to increase every day. This essay contributes to our understanding of the backdating phenomenon by analyzing the economics of backdating and the characteristics of the firms under investigation. Its main points are the following: First, given the high volatilities of the stocks of the technology companies that dominate the list of firms under investigation and the fact that options granted to executives and employees typically may not be exercised for several years, press reports that focus on the size of the strike price quot;discountsquot; achieved by backdating significantly overstate the value of backdating. In some cases, reducing the strike price by a dollar per share by backdating increased the Black-Scholes value of the option by less than twenty cents per share. Second, completely unnoticed in the discussion so far is the fact that in many cases backdating dramatically reduced the apparent value of options. Because the size of executive stock option grants often is determined first by establishing the value to be delivered and then by calculating the number of shares to be covered by the option, reducing the apparent value of option shares may have substantially increased the size and true economic value of backdated executive option grants. Third, comparison of semiconductor firms under investigation for backdating with peer companies that are not suggests an association between backdating and the use of options in compensating non-executive employees. This essay considers several explanations for backdating non-executive options, including share limitations, minimizing apparent rank and file compensation, and cognitive biases. Finally, this essay argues that the backdating phenomenon is really not an accounting scandal. Backdating has accounting consequences, but it is unlikely to have been accounting driven.

The Impact of Regulatory Intervention in Stock Options Backdating Disclosures

The Impact of Regulatory Intervention in Stock Options Backdating Disclosures PDF Author: Stephen Becker
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 17

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Book Description
Previous literature on the effects of disclosing options backdating problems focused mainly on estimating the cumulative and aggregate losses. This paper takes a different approach and investigates the effect of regulatory intervention on companies accused of backdating stock options. An event study approach is employed to analyze the announcements of backdating problems made by 83 companies. Our analysis shows that the companies under regulatory investigation suffered greater declines in value than companies who are not. However, the magnitude of the decline in value associated with outside investigation does not appear to be dependent on the timing of the regulatory intervention. In other words, no extra loss was incurred to those companies whose backdating problems were first exposed or triggered by regulatory action. Further analysis indicates that total loss in market value suffered by companies may reflect both the severity of the backdating problems and an extra cost imposed by regulatory investigations per se. Our preliminary estimate is that as much as one-third of the total loss may be attributable to regulatory involvement.

U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 1212

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Book Description


What All Business Lawyers & Litigators Must Know about Delaware Law Developments

What All Business Lawyers & Litigators Must Know about Delaware Law Developments PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Corporation law
Languages : en
Pages : 666

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Book Description