Apple Shares Hit a Slump

"With each piece of news the market is going to react because they seem to think that without Jobs, Apple is over," Hodgson says. Apple has "been very careful in trying to distance him from the two grants to which he's associated with, only one of which was significantly backdated."

Until the investigation is officially closed by federal authorities, the stock options probe "will remain an overhang on the stock and the No. 1 question will remain: Will Steve Jobs be forced to leave the company?" says Jonathan Hoopes, an analyst with ThinkEquity. "I still believe he's sticking around."

Hoopes does not own Apple shares and his firm does not do banking.

In October, the company admitted that some grants were incorrect. Jobs knew of favorable grants, Apple said, but he didn't benefit personally and "was unaware of the accounting implications."

"There's still some unanswered questions there, or some facts that weren't set before the shareholders, and I think they need to come completely clean with those," Hodgson says. "Honesty is always the best policy."

Also this week, Apple was slapped with a trademark infringement lawsuit from networking giant Cisco (CSCO) for using the iPhone name without its permission.

Cisco said the two companies were in discussions over the use of the name but that Apple announced the iPhone before any agreement was made.

Cisco acquired Infogear in 2000, which registered the iPhone trademark in 1996. Cisco's Linksys division has sold iPhone products since early 2006.

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris called the lawsuit "silly."

"There are already several companies using the name iPhone for voice-over-IP products," Kerris said. "If Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're very confident we will prevail."

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