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  3. The concept captured the Zeitgeist of the personal computer revolution. Many young people, especially those in the countercultur

The concept captured the Zeitgeist of the personal computer revolution. Many young people, especially those in the countercultur

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问题 The concept captured the Zeitgeist of the personal computer revolution. Many young people, especially those in the counterculture, had viewed computers as instruments that could be used by Orwellian governments and giant corporations to sap individuality. But by the end of the 1970s, they were also being seen as potential tools for personal empowerment. The ad cast Macintosh as a warrior for the latter cause—a cool, rebellious, and heroic company that was the only thing standing in the way of the big evil corporation’s plan for world domination and total mind control.
Once again Jobs would end up suffering bad publicity without making a penny. Apple’s stock price kept dropping, and by March, 2003, even the new options were so low that Jobs traded in all of them for an outright grant of $ 75 million worth of shares, which amounted to about $ 8. 3 million for each year he had worked since coming back in 1997 through the end of the vesting in 2006.
None of this would have mattered much if the Wall Street Journal had not run a powerful series in 2006 about backdated stock options. Apple wasn’t mentioned, but its board appointed a committee of three members—Al Gore, Eric Schmidt of Google, and Jerry York, formerly of IBM and Chrysler—to investigate its own practices. "We decided at the outset that if Steve was at fault we would let the chips fall where they may," Gore recalled. The committee uncovered some irregularities with Jobs’s grants and those of other top officers, and it immediately turned the findings over to the SEC. Jobs was aware of the backdating, the report said, but he ended up not benefiting financially. A board committee at Disney also found that similar backdating had occurred at Pixar when Jobs was in charge.
The laws governing such backdating practices were murky, especially since no one at Apple ended up benefiting from the dubiously dated grants. The SEC took eight months to do its own investigation, and in April, 2007, it announced that it would not bring action against Apple " based in part on its swift, extensive, and extraordinary cooperation in the Commission’s investigation[and its]prompt self-reporting. " Although the SEC found that Jobs had been aware of the backdating, it cleared him of any misconduct because he " was unaware of the accounting implications.
The SEC did file complaints against Apple’s former chief financial officer Fred Anderson, who was on the board, and general counsel Nancy Heinen. Anderson, a retired Air Force captain with a square jaw and deep integrity, had been a wise and calming influence at Apple, where he was known for his a-bility to control Jobs’ tantrums. He was cited by the SEC only for "negligence" regarding the paperwork for one set of the grants(not the ones that went to Jobs), and the SEC allowed him to continue to serve on corporate boards.
选项
答案 这个概念抓住了个人电脑革命的时代精神。许多年轻人，特别是那些反主流文化的，都把电脑看作集权政府和企业巨头用来操纵和消除人们个性的手段。但到了20世纪70年代末，电脑也被当作自我展现的潜在工具。这个广告则抓住了年轻人的后一种心态，把麦金塔电脑塑造成一个英勇的战士，表明苹果公司是一家冷酷、反叛和极具英雄主义色彩的公司，是唯一能阻止邪恶的企业势力统治世界和绝对精神控制的英雄。 最终，乔布斯又一次在分文未得的情况下遭到了公众的恶评。苹果股价持续下跌，到2003年3月，即使是新的期权都已经一钱不值，乔布斯不得不用这些期权换取了价值7 500万美元的股份——这相当于他从1997年返回公司直至2006年新期权授予完毕每年入账830万美元。 如果《华尔街日报》没有在2006年就期权的日期倒签现象刊登那个影响巨大的系列报道，这一切本来算不了什么。报道中并没有提到苹果公司的名字，但苹果的董事会委派了一个由阿尔.戈尔、谷歌的埃里克.施密特，以及曾在IBM和克莱斯勒任职的杰里.约克3人构成的委员会对公司的内部行为展开了调查。“一开始我们就决定，如果史蒂夫确实负有责任，我们不会姑息迁就。”戈尔回忆说。委员会发现乔布斯以及其他一些高管的期权存在违规之处，于是他们立即向证券交易委员会递交了调查结果。报告中说，乔布斯对日期倒签行为是知情的，但他最终并没有从中获得经济利益。迪士尼公司董事会的一个委员会也发现，皮克斯公司在乔布斯主政期间也曾有过类似的期权日期倒签行为。 针对这类期权日期倒签行为的法律没有明确的规定，特别是，苹果公司最终并没有一个人从这种有疑问的期权政策中获益。证券交易委员会用了8个月的时间完成了调查，并于2007年4月宣布不会对苹果公司采取行动，这“部分是基于公司对委员会调查工作迅捷、全面、出色的配合以及(它)及时主动的汇报”。尽管证券交易委员会发现乔布斯对日期倒签行为确实知情，但撇清了他有任何不当行为的嫌疑，因为他“对会计上的影响并不知情”。 证券交易委员会对苹果前首席财务官、董事会成员弗雷德.安德森，以及常务法律顾问南希.海宁提起了诉讼。安德森是一位退役的美国空军上尉，长着一个方方的下巴，为人极度正直，曾以他的机智与平和对公司产生了重要影响，在任期间，他以擅长控制乔布斯的臭脾气而闻名。证券交易委员会仅控之以“疏忽”责任，无非涉及某些期权政策(不是给乔布斯的那些)中的文书工作，而且允许他继续出任企业的董事。
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