KLA-Tencor to Restate Results

KLA-Tencor Corp. says it will restate prior results to correct past accounting for stock options. The supplier of tools for making microchips says an internal review concluded that incorrect measurement dates for certain stock-option grants were used for financial-accounting purposes, mostly from fiscal 1998 through 2002.

As a result, the company will record noncash charges for compensation expenses relating to those past stock-option grants. However, company officials have not determined the exact amount of the charges, the resulting tax and accounting effect, or which specific reporting periods may require restatement.

Even so, financial statements, as well as all earnings and press releases and similar communications issued by the company for the past nine fiscal years should no longer be relied upon, according to KLA-Tencor documents. The company notes, however, that it does not expect the restatement to have any impact on historical revenues.

Any stock-based compensation charges incurred as a result of the restatement would decrease reported income or increase reported loss from operations, the company says.

In May, KLA-Tencor was one of five companies The Wall Street Journal identified as having engaged in "highly improbable patterns of options grants."