BlackBerry bosses settle share option row
The joint chief executives, president, chief financial officer and other board directors of Research in Motion - the firm behind BlackBerry - have settled a probe by Canadian regulators over the backdating of stock options.
RIM is listed in Ontario as well as on Nasdaq. It admitted in 2006 that investigators were checking share option grants dating back to 1996.
The directors must pay back money to RIM and also pay the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) the cost of its investigation.
Four directors - chairman of the board and co-CEO Jim Balsillie, president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, CFO Denis Kavelman and vice president of finance Angelo Loberto will pay $92m in total for failing to properly oversee RIM's granting of share options.
Of this $92m, $38.3m goes to RIM to repay the benefits of backdated or repriced options, $44.8m to cover RIM's costs in investigating and sorting out the options mess, and $9.1m to the OSC to cover the costs of its investigation.
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