Earlier this year, Inventec Appliances (spun off from Inventec Electronics) was raided as prosecutors began looking for evidence to support charges of alleged insider trading, and now it looks like nine of the firm's employees could be headed to the slammer. Taiwan's Banciao District Prosecutors Office "alleged that nine executives and one lower level employee failed to publicly reveal a steep drop in iPod orders until after they had sold off nearly $22.4 million worth of stock," and although the employees knew of the order cuts as early as January 19th, nothing was publicly revealed until mid-March. Purportedly, prosecutors "are seeking the stiffest penalties against the two top executives," and if the evidence sticks, we have all ideas that Inventec will be huntin' a new Chairman (and President, too) in the not-too-distant future.

[Via TUAW]

Western Digital has bought Komag, a company that supplies its buyer with thin-film media used to create disk drives, for $1 billion. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of the year, and has been completely approved by both boards, with just regulatory approvals needed to be cleared. The deal is overshadowed somewhat by the statement by one analyst that unusual trading in options ahead of the deal looked "suspicious," which makes it hard for us to recall an example where stock trading in the time immediately surrounding a merger deal wasn't suspicious.

So it looks like we're not the only ones who are sick and tired of filling out forms and sending them in to Uncle Sam, as Singapore-based Creative has announced plans to delist its publicly traded shares from the NASDAQ Global Exchange, citing administrative costs associated with meeting "increasingly burdensome U.S. reporting obligations." The manufacturer of such diverse products as X-Fi sound cards and Live! webcams expects to withdraw its ordinary shares by August 1st and move trading entirely over to the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, which already sees 90% of the company's average worldwide daily trading volume anyway. As expected, Creative's US shares have already started to tank as investors contemplate the complications of trading in a foreign market, but Creative diehards can probably anticipate a rebound once the integration has been completed. Or so our boiler room broker tells us...

[Via epiZENter]

While you may assume that three's company, it looks like Fujitsu Kansai Systems has little choice but to join the dubious trio in yet another round of bookkeeping scandals. Aside from questioning the quality of accounting curriculums in Japan, parent company Fujitsu is being faced with news that one of its subsidiaries allegedly "booked fictitious sales," and while we're sure it wishes the slight dip in stock prices were the only consequence, we're also hearing that "other companies may be involved with the bogus accounting at the software-consulting and sales unit." Of course, spokespersons for the company simply reiterate that investigations are ongoing, but at least one instance of circular sales involving NAJ has reportedly been divulged. So, who's next? [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

We'll admit, even we're a bit frightened that immensely intelligent humanoid bots may one day oust us from these seats, but according to whispers going around at IBM's HQ, something just as momentous could be going down as early as this year. Shortly after Lenovo told 1,400 of its US-based employees to politely hop off the payroll, IBM's LEAN plan could call for over 100,000 American workers to be canned in favor of (surprise, surprise) hiring overseas. Already, the firm has laid off 1,300 employees in 2007, but according to a recent report, an ongoing "planning meeting" for how to handle the company's Global Services could eventually axe "up to 150,000 US jobs" while hiring cheaper labor in China and India. Interestingly, this news could actually be sweet music to Wall Street, at least in the short term, but we can't imagine how this logistical nightmare will ever bode well for Big Blue's future.

Ouch, El Jobso is not pleased. The tech exec superstar who's largely gotten off clean despite Apple's lingering backdated stock options scandal is now being publicly blamed for wrongdoings by former Apple CFO Fred Anderson, who was dismissed by the company in 2004. According to a statement issued by Mr. Anderson's lawyer via the SEC:

"Fred cautioned Mr. Jobs that the Executive Team grant would have to be priced based on the date of the actual Board agreement or there could be an accounting charge. He further advised Mr. Jobs that the Board would have to confirm its prior approval in a legally satisfactory method. He was told by Mr. Jobs that the Board had given its prior approval and the Board would verify it. Fred relied on these statements by Mr. Jobs and from them concluded the grant was being properly handled. ... It now appears the Board may not have given the necessary prior approval to the grants, contrary to what Mr. Anderson understood from Mr. Jobs"

This statement was issued after Anderson was ordered by the SEC to return $3.5 million dollars in stock options and also fork over a $150,000 fine for his part in the whole mess. On the flipside, former Apple general counsel Nancy Heinen seems intent on going down with guns blazing: from what we can tell, she has no plans on settling so easily. The SEC charged her for her participating in a scheme that caused Apple to under-report its expenses by almost $40 million, and it looks like she's going to court like the high-powered attorney she is. Things are not looking good Cupertino way -- could this mark the beginning of the end of the Jobs-led Apple corporate structure as we know it? Only time will tell, but we'll keep you updated. [Warning: link requires subscription]

If you thought the BenQ Mobile saga ended when Taiwan severed ties with the former Siemens unit and prepared to slice it up and serve it cold, you ain't seen nothin' yet. It's no secret that the struggling handset maker had been losing money ever since the handover, but apparently some company insiders may have used their knowledge of the impending bankruptcy filing to get out while the getting was still good -- selling shares of BenQ prior to the announcement and the inevitable consequences. So far 13 executives have been caught up in the sting -- including CFO and senior VP Eric Yu, who is still being "detained" along with six others in lieu of what is probably well over $100,000 bail -- and although Chairman K.Y. Lee hasn't yet been named as a person of interest, Taiwanese investors were still shaken enough to push BenQ shares down almost 7% to their lowest level in ten years. In a typical response during times of scrutiny, the company itself publicly pledged its cooperation, but with all the top dogs behind bars, we're not sure if anyone will still be around to provide the relevant documents. Either way, you should hold on tight to all that BenQ gear you've been collecting over the years, just in case, you know, they happen to become collectibles.

[Thanks, Reg]

The whole "smash my stuff" campaign was a tad comical at times, but we never really felt it connected with the 40-and-up age group per se. Au contraire, Jim Cramer from CNBC's Mad Money apparently felt that busting open a (cleverly chosen) brown Microsoft Zune would better illustrate how MSFT was a "loser," while AAPL was most certainly a winner. After (quite literally) ranting for a good bit about how Apple has single-handedly changed the way we listen to music, he informs everyone that the Zune was "beat before it hit the market," and proceeds to literally beat the Zune until it was (somewhat) damaged from multiple baseball bat blows. Notably, the Zune stood up fairly well to the torture, and still retained its shape after it took a lickin'. Of course, if you're really interested in whether the Zune or iPod give way to a brighter financial future for either company, you should probably hit up our pals at BloggingStocks for that, but be sure to check out the video of "Jim Gone Wild" after the break.

[Via Digg]

While Apple's surely enjoying the perks of having a monumental amount of iPods unwrapped just days ago, everything's not exactly kosher in Cupertino. Aside from the mysterious mouse the firm just patented, the company is facing another bevy of off-the-wall lawsuits, all while trying to fish its CEO out of potentially hot water. After the Securities and Exchange Commission found that ole Steve was granted 7.5 million stock options without the proper authorization of Apple's board of directors in 2001, there was widespread speculation that Mr. One More Thing may suffer the same fate as Apple's former CFO Fred Anderson, who resigned after a similar debacle in 2004. It seems, however, that things just might work out okay after all, as Apple finally filed its required forms with SEC, recognizing a "total additional non-cash, stock-based compensation expense of $84 million after tax, including $4 million and $7 million in fiscal years 2006 and 2005, respectively." Aside from taking the lofty charge, the company also stated that while Jobs was "aware of the favorable grant date recommendations, he did not financially benefit from these grants or appreciate the accounting implications." So all those out there holding your breath to see if Macworld would ever be the same if this went south, it looks like we'll be seeing jeans and a black shirt all over again in just a few weeks.