Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc.’s senior vice president of corporate development and former chief financial officer has resigned after declining to be interviewed in the company’s probe of stock option grants, Quest said Friday.
M. Brinkley Morse, who handled the company’s investment and acquisition strategy since 2005 and was financial chief from 2001 to 2005, resigned on Saturday, the company said.
Before resigning, Morse’s lawyer told a special board committee that he declined to be interviewed as part of an investigation into the timing of option grants.
In June, Quest said the Securities and Exchange Commission was doing an informal probe of the timing of its option grants. In question is whether grants were timed for maximum value.
A month later, Quest said it planned to restate results from 2000 through the first quarter of this year to account for option grants.
The special committee is working to finish its options review but doesn’t have an end date in sight yet.
