'Sloppy' options practices at Broadcom

Here's another example of a company knee-deep in backdated stock options trying to smooth things over in advance of the feds. The Irvine-based chipmaker is reducing its income by $2.2 billion from 1998 through 2005 because of said options. That's by far the largest earnings hit of the 200 or so public companies implicated in the scandal. Broadcom said that co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III bears "significant responsibility" for the mess by failing to institute proper controls in the option granting process. A company filing says that "Dr. Nicholas was at times involved with the selection of grant dates after the fact and with subsequent allocations of grants." You might remember that Nicholas left the company three years ago, supposedly to save his marriage. The other co-founder, Henry Samueli, stayed on as chairman. Neither man, both billionaires, benefited directly from any backdated options, according to the filing. OC Register LAT