BOSTON—American Tower Corp., the nation’s largest tower company, announced that it received a formal letter of inquiry about its stock option grants from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company said its board created a special committee of independent directors to conduct its own internal review of its stock option practices and related accounting. In a press statement, AMT said it formed the review committee after being made aware of a third-party research report regarding practices related to the timing and pricing of its stock option grants.
“Depending on the outcome of this review, the company may need to correct its historical determinations of non-cash stock-based compensation expense and, if such corrections are material, it could result in the need to restate the company’s financial statements,” read AMT’s press statement.
However, the company also said in the statement that it does not expect the review to result in changes to its revenues, operating expenses or cash flow from operations.
The news pushed AMT’s stock down $2.29 to $29.32 per share during morning trading.
