Lawsuit against Apple rejected

Apple Inc. won dismissal Wednesday of a shareholder lawsuit claiming that company officers including Chief Executive Steve Jobs were overpaid with illegally backdated option awards.

Apple, maker of the iPod and iPhone music-and-video players, said last year that 6,428 stockoption grants issued between 1997 and 2002 were backdated.

The New York City Employees’ Retirement System, the lead plaintiff, argued the awards caused Apple to dilute its stock by issuing more than 200 million shares that weren’t properly accounted for or disclosed.

But “without a discernible drop in the stock price there is no basis upon which to establish an injury to shareholders,” U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose wrote in dismissing the suit.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., found no misconduct by Jobs, who recommended favorable dates on some grants other than his own. The company recorded $84 million in charges to correct its accounting.

Fogel said shareholders could refile the claims as a so-called derivative suit arguing that the alleged violations hurt the company. The case probably would then be folded into an existing derivative claim.