A Different Black Friday for Apple

"Black Friday" will have a whole new meaning of its own for Apple Computer come business week's end if any news sheds light on whether or not CEO Steve Jobs had anything to do with the "irregularities" to be published in a long since delayed report in regard to the company's stocks.

(Say it ain't so Steve, say it ain't so!).

CNBC reports this morning that the Financial Times says that Jobs received 7.5 million dollars in stock options from 2001 without the approval of its board of directors. The documents showing that approval had indeed taken place were "falsified" according to the Times, and the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is pondering whether to pursue a criminal case.

MacNewsWorld.com reports today that Wall Street doesn't seem worried about this story, as long as Jobs isn't implicated or shown to be involved with this stock options scandal.

The question on "Squawk Box" anchor Joe Kernen's mind was why would anyone falsify documents, even if--according to them--Jobs didn't profit from the doing so. Was someone else outside of Jobs's knowledge, or even a group within or outside of Apple receiving these options as well?

CNBC expects the answer to be revealed tomorrow.

Will this Stock Thing Spoil the Entire Bushel?

Yesterday evening, while the aformentioned stock options story was still breaking news all over the business world, the question on everyone's minds was what this whole thing would mean for Apple at its, core-- especially on CNBC's "On the Money" program (weeknights, 7:00p ET).

Last night's guest anchor mentioned to his two guests on the air that "Apple is Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs is Apple." Apple today is what it is because of Steve Jobs. What will happen to Apple the company, Apple the product, so on and so forth, if any of these allegations are true?

Their guest was pretty confident, saying that it "...won't change a thing. Apple will continue to be a product innovator."

Last night, San Francisco's NBC station, NBC11 (KNTV, based in San Jose) reports that this news is certainly a, "...PR hit for the company. There's no other company whose success is tied to one person."

Does that mean Apple can live without Steve, or that Steve should leave to save the company?

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