Apple has told the US Securities and Exchange Commission it will miss the deadline for filing its most recent set of quarterly financial figures. The admission follows last week's revelation that the company will "likely" restate its numbers for the past 15 quarters.

Today, the Mac maker said it expects "significant changes in the results of operations for the quarter ended 1 July 2006 compared to the quarter ended 25 June 2005, including significant increases in the company’s revenue and expenses".

The SEC submission follows Apple's admission on 29 June that it was investigating "irregularities related to the issuance of certain stock option grants made between 1997 and 2001". That, in turn, led the company last week to warn that one outcome of the probe could well be the need to restate its quarterly figures from 2002 onwards.

Yesterday, graphics chip company Nvidia said it may not be able to file its latest quarterly figures with the SEC until it too has completed an investigation of the way it offered stock options to its staff in the past. As a result, despite revealing record revenues, Nvidia was unable to state the quarter's net income. ®