Apple searching for independent board member; Sonicblue to file for bankruptcy; more

Apple searching for independent board member CNET reports that Apple says it is searching for an additional independent board member and that employees, including CEO Steve Jobs, can swap out existing stock options for new ones. The company said the moves will strengthen corporate governance. Apple also announced a voluntary program for employees to exchange stock options. "The program allows Apple workers who are not executive officers and who hold options with exercise prices at or above $25 to exchange them for a lesser number of new stock options priced at fair market value six months and one day after their existing options are canceled." More.

Sonicblue to file for bankruptcy Reuters reports that Sonicblue Inc. plans to file for bankruptcy and has agreed to sell the assets of its main product lines for $52.5 million. Sonicblue said it agreed to sell its Rio unit, which made the first mainstream device to play music in the popular MP3 format, and its ReplayTV digital video recorder unit to D&M Holdings 6735.T of Japan for $40 million, plus the assumption of about $5 million in liabilities. More.

Palm posts quarterly loss on slack handheld sales Palm on Thursday reported a $172 million third-quarter net loss, with the results hurt by a large restructuring charge and slack sales of new models of the pocket digital organizers for business customers. "The Milpitas, California, company, which dominates the market for both personal digital assistants and the software systems that power them, said its net loss was $172.3 million, or $5.93 per share, compared with a profit of $2.9 million, or 10 cents per share." More.

Financial woes for Intuit Shares of Intuit fell more than 23 percent Friday after the software maker reduced its full-year forecast because of weak sales. "The Mountain View, Calif.-based maker of QuickBooks and TurboTax said Thursday after the close of regular trading that its earnings, excluding certain accounting items, will range from $1.30 to $1.35 per share for the fiscal year ending July 31. That was below previous management projections of $1.38 to $1.42 per share." More.

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