The Securities and Exchange Commission has agreed to settle with Microsoft Corp. over allegations the software giant misled investors by understating revenues, SEC Commissioner Isaac Hunt said on Friday.
Without admitting any wrongdoing or facing any fine, Microsoft will cease using the accounting practice to smooth out its earnings under the pact approved in an SEC vote taken on Thursday.
"The commission and Microsoft entered into an agreement to settle the case," Hunt told Reuters. "It's a cease-and-desist order. They've agreed not to do it in the future."
Commissioners Isaac Hunt and Cynthia Glassman backed the settlement. SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, who represented Microsoft's auditor Deloitte & Touche LLP as a private securities attorney, recused himself, a source familiar with the matter said.
For more than two years, the SEC had been looking at Microsoft's alleged use of so-called "cookie jar" accounting -- the practice of taking reserves that can be used to pad revenues during lean times.
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