Steven P Jobs

Steve Jobs bowed to the cult of the Apple faithful. Apple Inc.'s chief executive issued a rare mea culpa Thursday for slashing the iPhone's price this week, only two months after the company's most ardent fans waited in line for hours to buy the $600 gadget. Apologizing for "disappointing" those initial buyers, he offered $100 store credits to anyone who had paid full price for the much-hyped product that combines a cellphone, a Web-surfing device and an iPod.

According to a regulatory filing, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs exercised options to buy 120,000 shares for $5.75 each and may reap a potential profit of $13.7 million. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company gave Jobs the options under a 1997 plan. Jobs hasn't sold the shares and has no plans to do so at this time, Apple said.

Not even an appearance from hype-master Steve Jobs could satisfy the craving Apple Inc. has created. Tech enthusiasts made clear Monday that they won't be happy until Apple starts selling the iPhone. Eighteen days before the much-anticipated mobile device hits store shelves, software developers and Apple fans crowded a conference center in San Francisco to see Apple's chief executive unveil features of another product: the upcoming Leopard operating system for Mac computers.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs, pressed by shareholders to detail his role in a stock option scandal, said Thursday that the issue was put to rest after a Securities and Exchange Commission probe cleared the company. "Unless you think there's a conspiracy theory involving the SEC too, I don't know what else to say," Jobs told investors at the company's annual meeting in Cupertino, Calif., where it is based.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs received a salary of just $1 last year, documents filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission said. Since returning in 1997 to the helm of the company he co-founded and catapulting Apple to record profit, the legendary Silicon Valley executive has opted to get only a token paycheck. But as of March 20, Jobs, 52, still owned more than 5.4 million restricted shares, worth about $494 million at Monday's closing price of $91.43.

Could Steve Jobs have benefited from backdating of stock options without actually receiving the securities in question? Legal and business experts say he might have done just that in the $7.4-billion sale last year of Pixar Animation Studios Inc. to the Walt Disney Co. Jobs, who was Pixar's chairman and chief executive, owned half of its shares and therefore reaped a big reward from the sale of the animation studio.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs was questioned by U.S. government investigators about backdating of employee stock option grants at the company, lawyers familiar with the matter said. Jobs met with officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department last week in San Francisco, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the interviews were confidential.

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs lost a bid to demolish a Spanish Colonial Revival-style mansion he owns about 30 miles south of San Francisco. A California appeals court ruled Wednesday that Jobs and the city of Woodside, where the 17,250-square-foot mansion was built in about 1925, didn't consider alternatives to destroying the home. Jobs said he never liked the 30-room Jackling House -- named after its original owner, copper magnate Daniel C. Jackling -- which he bought 21 years ago.

Apple Computer Inc. on Friday cleared Chief Executive Steve Jobs of wrongdoing regarding its improper handling of stock options, but new details from an internal investigation only fueled controversy.

Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday that Chief Executive Steve Jobs knew the computer maker had sometimes changed the grant dates on stock options to make them more valuable -- an improper accounting practice that has tripped up more than 100 companies. Apple said a three-month internal investigation into the timing of stock option grants had resulted in the resignation of former Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson from its board of directors. The Cupertino, Calif.