CA hit by $342m share irregularities

CA's past has come back to haunt it once more with news today that the company has taken a $342m hit due to share option irregularities, as well as restating its accounts from 2002 to 2005 and reporting a fourth-quarter loss of $58m.

The company has had to strike $342m from its books after it was revealed that pools of share options set aside for employees pre-2002 were held on to for up to two years, with the result that CA was able to present healthier figures to Wall Street without appropriate compensations taken into consideration.

In response to the news a report from analysts at Ovum suggested John Swainson, CEO of CA, "must surely be hoping this is the last 'surprise' that his predecessors have left for him, and that he has now cleared the decks sufficiently to allow CA to move on".

CA posted fourth-quarter revenue of $948m, compared to $930m for the same period last year. It also announced an operating loss of $58m compared to an operating profit of $74m.

Earlier this week CA announced the appointment of its fifth CFO in two-and-a-half years.