Apple restates earnings from 2004 to 2006 (UDPATE)

UPDATE: SEC filings published by Apple today, reveal that the company currently faces several law-suits. Among them, a law-suit related to the stock-options grants, another on iTunes/iPod monopoly, a patent infringement on the Nike-iPod kit and unhappy iBook G4 customers.

As it promised a few weeks, ago, today, Apple has restated its financial results from 2004 to 2006 and has provided further details on its investigation to the SEC and its investors.

The computer maker had announced it would probably need to restate its financial results in June, after it discovered stock-option related irregularities in its accounting.

Apple's options mishandling will result in an additional non-cash charge of $84 million while the company's 2004, 2005 and 2006 earnings will be lowered by $10 million, $7 million, and $4 million respectively.

Along with the restatement, Apple has provided details on the results of its investigation. The company said there was no misconduct of current executives in the case.

Steve Jobs was actually aware and recommended some irregular stock-option grants. However, Apple says the company's CEO didn't receive financial benefit from these stock-option grants and wasn't aware of their accounting implications. The special comitee that investigated the company added that it has "complete confidence" in Apple's CEO.

Investors reacted very positively on the news, as Apple shares climbed significantly (more than 4%) on pre-market trading.

Earlier in the week the stock has been very volatile, after news that the SEC had started its own investigation at Apple and on a Financial Times report that said the SEC was investigating on a forged stock-option grant for Steve Jobs who was also said to have hired a personal counsel for the case.

While this is far from being the worst scenario for Apple at the moment, some questions remain unanwsered. Although analysts have downplayed this possibility so far, it has yet to be determined if Steve Jobs as well as other members of Apple's current management should be pursued with criminal charges regarding their irregular stock-option grants.