THQ Announces Closure Of SEC Investigation

Publisher THQ (Drawn To Life) has announced that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has completed its investigation of the company's stock option grant practices, and will not recommend any action be taken against the company. THQ originally announced the investigation in August 2006, when it revealed the SEC requested documents from the company relating to stock option grant practices from 1996 to the present. At the time the SEC opened its investigation, THQ stated it had already begun an internal review of its grant practices voluntarily, following news coverage and analyst reports about the option practices of numerous companies across several different industries. As an Associated Press report explained at the time, the SEC's investigation of stock option irregularities particularly focused on the practice of “backdating” stock option grants to time them at share price lows, thus increasing their sale price value. Both Activision and Take-Two were also investigated as part of this same broader effort on the part of the SEC, but there have been no major ramifications for game companies as of yet.