So, this I don't understand. Apple Computer stock is down this morning, as much as 4% lower at one point, after a California law newspaper reported that prosecutors were investigating falsification of options documents. Apple had already said, back in June, that it had found some discrepancies in stock options granted to employees between 1997 and 2002, so it was pretty obvious that an investigation would find evidence of backdating. That's the dodgy practice of the last boom by which options were dated to coincide with a dip in the company's stock, increasing their value to executives — at the expense of shareholders. The only new news in The Recorder: Steve Jobs, one of the only indispensable CEOs in the tech business, has appointed his own lawyer, suggesting he may be in the prosecutors' sights. Jobs has always been more engaged in the high finance of Apple Computer than would be suggested by his public image as a design obsessive.

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