Where do you start with this? The problem isn't back-dating options per se. The problem is not expensing them. If they are expensed (as has been proposed for the GAAP accounting practices that all companies are supposed to follow) and not just printed out of thin air, then back-dating 100 years is just fine. You just have to reflect the difference in price offered and market price on the day actually granted.

Let's say AAPL restates earning significantly. It probably won't, but lets say it does. I doubt it affects the stock price because earnings 3 years ago don't mean squat to the company's valuation today. AAPL pays no dividend, so it's value is not really even a direct function of historical earnings, just a stock market determined multiple of most recent earnings. And that multiple is sky high compared to any company it competes with. So technically, Wu-Munster is probably right.

But, big big but, the SEC is out trying to make a point. And what if Apple's little self examination and sacrifice of Freddy isn't good enough for them? The scandal just gets bigger. It's too obscure for most in the public to understand (unlike HP), so it will have a long incubation time. You know, it's so easy for AAPL to come completely clean on this and make a proactive fix: start expensing options. They can afford to just pay their execs and engineers competitive salaries rather than mucking around with the stock component and "invisibly" taking the compensation out of shareholder value