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 Or-wellian 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 ability to control Jobs’ s 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. Nevertheless he ended up resigning from the Apple board.

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答案 这个广告概念抓住了个人电脑革命的时代精神。许多年轻人,特别是反主流文化的嬉皮士,都将电脑视为集权政府和企业巨头用来消除个性的手段。但是到20世纪70年代末,电脑也被视为个人获取权利的潜在工具。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名英勇的战士。这样一家冷酷、反叛和英雄主义的苹果公司,是唯一能阻止邪恶企业势力统治世界和精神控制前进的工具。 这次还是一样,乔布斯又一次被大众指责,而且没能赚到一分钱。苹果的股份不断下跌,到2003年三月,即使是新的期权也已经不值什么钱了,乔布斯索性全部行权,赚了7500万美元。算来从1997年他回到苹果至2006年期权结束,他平均每年收入830万美元。 如果不是《华尔街日报》在2006对于股票期权倒签做了一个强有力的系列报道,也许就不会发生任何事情了。报道中虽然没有提到苹果公司,但是其董事会还是任命了一个三人工作组进行自查。这三个人分别是艾尔?戈尔(Al Gore),谷歌的埃里克?施密特(Eric Schmidt),IBM和Chrysler的前董事杰瑞?约克(Jerry York)。“我们一开始就决定如果乔布斯有错,绝对不会包庇。”戈尔回忆说。工作组发现了乔布斯和其他一些高管的违规行为,立即汇报给了证券管理委员会。报告说,乔布斯是清楚倒签事件的,但是他最终没有获益(迪斯尼的一位董事发现,乔布斯在皮克斯(Pixar)公司任职时也曾发生过类似的倒签行为)。 法律针对这样的倒签行为没有明确的规定,特别是苹果没有一个人因此而获益。证券管理委员会调查了八个月,最终决定不追究苹果,这很大程度上是“因为苹果迅速、广泛、非常配合工作组的调查和及时的自我检举”。尽管证券管理委员会发现乔布斯事先清楚倒签行为,但由于他“不懂会计影响”,很明显这只是个无心之过。 证券管理委员会对苹果前首席财务官,也是董事会成员的弗雷德?安德森(Fred Ander—son)还有常务法律顾问南希?海涅(Nancy Heinen)提起了诉讼。安德森是一位退休的美国空军上尉。他有着方形的下巴和一身正气,在苹果有精明、冷静的影响力,大家都知道他擅于化解乔布斯的怒火。证券管理委员会对他的行为仅界定为“疏忽”,理由是抓到了一些期权文件(并非给乔布斯的那些)中的问题,而且还允许他继续担任董事。不过最终他还是辞去了苹果董事的职务。

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