Apple Options Not An Issue At Macworld

Jan. 9 - KGO (KGO) -- The stock option backdating questions involving Steve Jobs and Apple took a back seat to simple concerns about new products and big potential profits today. Some analysts believe whatever comes of the scandal and the investigation, it won't have much effect on the company's bottom line.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO: "We filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone and we intend to protect them."

Among the Apple faithful, Steve Jobs' keynote at Macworld is not about anything but the new products.

Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research: "This was the most widely anticipated phone since Alexander Graham Bell."

The investigation into possible stock option backdating misconduct by Jobs and other executives was the last thing on anyone's mind. Backdating is a practice where executives approve buying stock at an older, cheaper price, to inflate its value, and it must be reported to stockholders.

Market analyst Michael Gartenberg thinks the company's legal troubles and concern over its future success are apples and oranges.

Michael Gartenberg: "It doesn't seem to be affecting Steve Jobs. If they have these issues, I'm sure that their lawyers will work through them. They're a highly visible company and these things tend to get magnified, but at the end of the day their business is about creating great products and I think that's what we saw today."

Former Vice President Al Gore was a part of the independent investigative team hired by the board to look at possible wrongdoing. A staged Gore voicemail was a part of Jobs' demonstration of the new phone today.

Jobs says the Gore investigation has cleared him.

Steve Jobs: "And they wrote a report and they said many things and one of the things was that none of the current management was involved in any misconduct. And we've given all this information to the SEC and I think things are going to be just fine."

The government investigations continue, but even if there is more trouble ahead, analyst Van Baker thinks the company will weather the storm.

Van Baker, Gartner: "Steve takes a lot of heat off the rest of his executive team because he's so public and visible and so much the guy who gives the face time. So it lets other guys on his team, which are very capable individuals, just focus on taking care of business."

Federal prosecutors and the SEC are now studying that internal Apple investigation and what happens next depends on whether they find any laws have been broken.

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