Nasdaq sent a letter to Apple: you may be kicked out of Nasdaq. This would be very harmful for Apple's finances because Nasdaq is the stock market that lists more companies and trades more shares per day than any other market in the USA.

Why is Nasdaq threatening to ax Apple? Nasdaq requires the quarterly profit report (or 10-Q); if you don't file your 10-Q, then it's goodbye stock listing.

But Apple announced that it would delay filing its 10-Q because its outside legal counsel is not yet done investigating what may be irregularities in the company's accounting of stock options for employees. This investigation was announced by Apple back in June 29. They will, of course, be reporting their findings to the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC, the US government body that watches over such things).

And the SEC has been busy investigating people over stock options for employees (basically like what's happening with the SEC investigating THQ for its options grants).

Several other companies are under investigation, and some of their executives have even been indicted for options-related fraud.