Nvidia Discloses Options Backdating

Staff Reporter -- Electronic News, 8/11/2006

Nvidia Corp. saw a 20 percent jump in revenue year-over-year for its Q2, but declined to report earnings pending the results of its internal audit, disclosed only yesterday, of its stock options practices.

Conducted by the company’s audit committee, the investigation has already reached a preliminary conclusion that the wrong dates were used for stock options grants for “certain prior periods,” which will likely result in a restatement of Nvidia’s financial results for those periods.

The review covers the years from the company’s IPO in 1999 through the current fiscal year. The audit committee is conducting the review with the help of outside legal counsel, Nvidia said, in a statement.

The chipmaker will miss its deadline of Sept. 8 for filing its Q2 quarterly results on Form 10-Q with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Nvidia said, in its statement.

Nvidia reported revenue of $687.5 million, a new record, for Q2. That compared to $574.8 million for Q2 during the same period a year ago.

"We are delighted to deliver another record quarter," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO, in a statement. "Our growth was driven by strong performance from numerous product groups -- desktop GPU (graphics processing units), notebook GPU, MCP, professional solutions and handheld GPU. As the industry continues to shift its focus to the multimedia experience for consumers, the GPU is becoming increasingly important in a broad range of computing and consumer devices. We are excited about our growth opportunities ahead."