Pixar Options Draw Scrutiny

Pixar, the animation studio formerly headed by Apple Computer (AAPL Quote) CEO Steve Jobs, handed out favorably priced options to key employees between 1997 and 2001, according to published reports.

In several cases, the options handed out carried a strike price equivalent to the lowest market price of Pixar's stock in the year they were granted, according a Bloomberg report.

In another case, Pixar, which was recently acquired by Walt Disney (DIS Quote), granted options right before it announced a key deal with Disney that sent Pixar's stock up 49%, according to the report.

Among the beneficiaries of the low-priced options, according to Bloomberg, were John Lasseter, the company's head of creative development; President Edwin Catmull; and Sarah McArthur, Pixar's vice president of production.

A Pixar representative did not return a call seeking comment on the report. Neither Disney nor Pixar has acknowledged any problems to date with Pixar's past options grants.

The report could serve to give further scrutiny to the role, if any, Jobs played in the granting of the options. Apple has already acknowledged certain "irregularities" in grants made during the same time period, including an outsized one to Jobs himself.

Jobs on Monday declined to comment about his knowledge of options problems at Apple.

Pixar granted Lasseter and Catmull split-adjusted 2 million and 1 million options, respectively, on Dec. 6, 2000. The options carried a strike price of a split-adjusted $13.25 at the time. According to Bloomberg, that was the lowest price for Pixar's shares that year. The grant to Lasseter was the largest that Pixar ever made as a public company, according to the report.

Lasseter's grant was part of an employment contract he signed in March the next year, according to Bloomberg. But Pixar didn't disclose the actual grant until April 30, at which time Pixar's shares had already risen to a split-adjusted $16.33 a share, according to the report.

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