VeriSign may take $250 million in charges
VeriSign Inc., one of dozens of companies under federal investigation for backdated options, may take charges totaling $250 million to correct its accounting.
While misdated option grants from 2001 to 2005 are still being investigated by a committee of directors, VeriSign will restate earnings for those years to correct its books, the company said in a statement.
VeriSign, which registers Web addresses on the Internet and is based in Mountain View, Calif., said the internal options probe should be completed by the end of this year.
The company delayed filing financial reports earlier this year as the probe went forward. VeriSign is one of at least 183 companies that have started internal options investigations or are the subject of related inquiries by U.S. regulators.
Also Tuesday:
* J2 Global Communications Inc., a Hollywood-based provider of business services, said it received a Nasdaq Stock Market notice of noncompliance for delays in filing earnings reports. The company had asked Nasdaq for more time to file, citing a continuing internal probe of options.
J2 Global said it expected to complete the review and file delayed reports by Dec. 15.
In the meantime, the company said its shares would continue to trade on Nasdaq pending appeals of delisting notices.
* Corinthian Colleges Inc., which operates colleges and training centers in the U.S. and Canada, said it had received a second letter from Nasdaq saying that it could be delisted for late financial filings.
Santa Ana-based Corinthian earlier appealed for more time from Nasdaq as it investigates options grants. It has delayed financial filings pending the outcome of that review.
* Borland Software Corp. said it planned to appeal a delisting notice it received from Nasdaq for failure to file timely financial reports.
* Rambus Inc., a designer of computer memory chips, said Nasdaq granted its request for an extension to file its quarterly reports, delayed by a continuing internal options review.
Los Altos, Calif.-based Rambus said it received an extension of the filing deadline until Feb. 9.
