We’ve got good news, and we’ve got bad news

Here’s the good news at Coherent of Santa Clara in an 8-K filed on Thursday. A Special Committe has been studying options granted over the past decade and concluded:

that there was no intentional wrongdoing by the Company’s current directors, its Chief Executive Officer, John Ambroseo, or its Chief Financial Officer, Helene Simonet.

Here’s the bad news. The Special Committe and management have:

determined that incorrect measurement dates for a significant number of stock option awards during the Relevant Period were used.

No word yet on how many, how much, or how big the restatements will be.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s an options backdating scandal going on…

Here’s a goof you probably don’t want your company to make these days: Putting the wrong option grant date on the Form 4 disclosing the award of stock options. Especially when it’s your directors.

Apparently, Yahoo’s fact checkers missed that memo. On Wednesday the company filed eight amendments to a series of Form 4s filed in June disclosing options that were awarded to its board members following the company’s annual meeting.

The original filings listed the grant date as June 13 and the strike price as $27.38. But according to the amendments, the real grant date should have been June 12. A footnote in the forms said this was “due to an administrative error.”

Fortunately, every cloud has a silver lining. The change in grant dates meant the strike price was only $27.05, down 33 cents.

Options backdating restatement, part 798; or Please disregard that last decade worth of earnings

Today’s featured guest: Silicon Storage Technology of Sunnyvale. In an 8-K filed Tuesday, the company said it would be restating its results for the period between 1997 and September 2006. That only covers just about every earnings related filing the company has made since it went public in 1995.

Why the restatements? Survey says: Possible options backdating problem.

The company, which makes memory chips, announced the review back in March, thus joining one of the least exclusive clubs around. The company hasn’t finished the review, so it can’t say how much it’ll shave off earnings. Or when it’ll complete the review. Or when it’ll file earnings statements again.

Another stay of execution…

…er, delisting.

Maxim Integrated Products, the Sunnyvale chip maker, convinced a Nasdaq panel to review a previous delisting decision and stay an order to delist. The 8-K filed on Wednesday didn’t way when a decision is expected.

Meanwhile, Maxim is still trying to sort out its own possible options backdating issues so it can file delinquent earnings reports.

Welcome to the (possible options backdating) club

Meet the newest member of the team: Lam Research of Fremont.

According to an 8-K filed on Wednesday by the semiconductor equipment company:

Lam Research Corporation (“Lam” or the “Company”) has commenced a voluntary internal review of the accounting and reporting related to Company grants of employee stock options and the procedures under which those grants were made. Questions have arisen as to whether the appropriate accounting measurement dates for certain employee stock option grants between 1999 and 2002 were selected.

Delisting Watch

Trident Microsystems just found out that the executioner has stayed its hand.

 The Santa Clara maker of digital TV technology got a reprieve on Monday when Nasdaq extended the deadline for being delisted. Trident was scheduled to be suspended today. Instead, the company will get additional time, though the filing doesn’t say how much.

 Trident has been facing delisting since last October, when Nasdaq issued its first warning after the company failed to file its annual report. The company is just one of many in Silicon Valley still trying to sort out its options backdating issues.

Delisting Watch

Maxim Integrated Products of Sunnyvale became the latest Valley company to find its stock listing on the endangered species list. The signal processing company is one of many caught up in the options backdating scandals. As such, it’s behind on filing several earnings reports and hasn’t been able to schedule an annual meeting of shareholders.

Nasdaq cited the latter in a letter dated July 3 as reason that it’s considering delisting Maxim’s stock (MXIM). In a 8-K filing on Tuesday, Maxim said it has filed an appeal, asking Nasdaq to delay any delisting and give it time to get its books in orders.

 Earlier this year, an internal probe at Maxim revealed that the company had engaged in the practice of backdating options.

 This turmoil doesn’t seem to bother shareholders. Maxim’s stock is up 13 percent since May 24. The stock was down 27 cents to $33.94 in mid-day trading Tuesday.