The Securities and Exchange Commission has cleared Linear Technology of any wrongdoing relating to its historical stock option granting practices.
Linear, an integrated circuits maker, said it received an SEC notice that the investigation had been completed and that no enforcement action was recommended.
“Since we were confident that our stock option granting practices were appropriate, and we met the filing deadlines for our SEC financial reporting requirements and had no restatements of our previous historical filings, it was always our expectation that the SEC would terminate its investigation,” said Robert H. Swanson, Jr., executive chairman.
Linear previously disclosed that it had reviewed its historical option-granting practices and option grants covering the periods 1995 through 2006 and concluded that there was no need to restate any previously filed financial statements.
In May 2006, Linear disclosed that the company and certain officers and directors had been targeted by two shareholder derivative lawsuits, alleging improper backdating of stock options granted between 1995 and 2002.