Spansion, the bankrupt Sunnyvale flash memory maker that gave its executives a retention-based pay raise in February the same day it fired 3,000 workers, named its fourth chief financial officer in less than five months.

Randy Furr was named to replace Nathan Sarkisian, who served as interim CFO since May 20 when he replaced the previous interim chief financial officer, Thora Thoroddsen. Thoroddsen is a senior vice president with the crisis management consulting firm Spansion hired days before it filed for bankruptcy protection Feb. 28. She became Spansion’s interim CFO in April when the company’s previous full-time CFO and a recipient of the retention-based pay raise, Dario Sacomani, quit.

Furr is the former chief operating officer of Sanmina-SCI who left that company unexpectedly in October 2005 “for personal and family reasons.” He resurfaced seven months later as chief financial officer of Adobe Systems, but resigned that post about a month after a special committee of Sanmina-SCI’s board announced that it would have to restate past financial statements as a result of “improper stock option grants.”

Furr agreed to repay $126,480 to cover the increased strike price of mispriced Sanmina options he previously exercised and to forfeit his right to a severance payment from Sanmina-SCI as part of a deal approved May 1 to settle a shareholder lawsuit over backdating allegations.

Furr’s offer letter guarantees him an annual salary of $440,000 and an annual target bonus of between 70-100 percent of that, subject to the approval of the Bankruptcy court, according to a filing today.

He will report to Chief Executive John Kispert, who’s original contract when he was hired in February called for him to receive a $1.75 million bonus should the company be sold. Since then the board has decided to pursue a “standalone” strategy and the bonus will now also be paid when its reorganization plan is approved.

Late Friday afternoon, March 6, Sanmina-SCI filed details of a preliminary settlement reached last month between a group of shareholders who had sued the company and several of its current and former executives and members of its board over the electronic manufacturer’s past stock option practices.

The deal, subject to final approval at a hearing in San Jose May 1, calls for changes in the way the company grants options along with steps to being taken by several individual defendants, including the repricing and/or forfeiture of previous options grants and outright cash payments to the company.

The company also agreed to pay the plaintiffs’ lawyers $4 million to cover their fees and expenses.

Sanmina-SCI Chief Executive Jure Sola agreed to reprice mispriced stock options he currently holds covering 1.38 million shares, which, based on the increased exercise price, amounts to the forfeit of $10.6 million in value. Sola will also repay the company $148,360 to make up for the difference between the strike price he already paid to exercise some options and the price they should have carried had they been properly priced when granted.

The company’s former chief operating officer, Randy Furr, who joined the company in 1992 as chief financial officer and was made chief operating officer in 1996, has agreed to repay $126,480 to cover the increased strike price of mispriced options he previously exercised, and also to forfeit his right to a severance payment of $61,667.

Furr left the company unexpectedly in October 2005 “for personal and family reasons.” He resurfaced seven months later as chief financial officer of Adobe Systems, but resigned less than six months later, less than a month after a special committee of Sanmina-SCI’s board announced that, as a result of “improper stock option grants,” it would have to restate past financial statements going back to 1997.

Sola and Furr, between them, also paid $504,000 more than they should have for some options that were mispriced higher,  but both waived their rights to recover the amount from the company as part of the proposed deal.

The bulk of the settlement is devoted numerous corporate governance reforms related to, among other things, the company’s “board of directors and management composition and stock option granting practices and procedures.”

Sanmina-SCI reported Tuesday to the SEC that its chief financial officer, David White, told the company Jan. 28 that he would be resigning. The exact data of his departure has yet to be set and White has agreed to continue “in a transitional capacity for a period of time not expected to exceed 30 days.”

The usual boilerplate applied: “Mr. White’s determination to resign was not due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.”

We’ll reserve speculation on that matter until after details of his termination agreement are filed. White, who joined the company in July 2004, held options on 800,000 shares with strike prices ranging from $7.43 for 250,000 shares in an option granted in October 2004 to $1.98 for 300,000 shares in an option granted in November 2007. Sanmina-SCI stock closed Tuesday at 34 cents each.

Yesterday, Sanmina-SCI reported a “maximum exposure” of about $20 million related to accounts receivable from Nortel Networks, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Sanmina-SCI, the San Jose-based electronics contract manufacturer, estimated in its quarterly filing with the SEC today that its “maximum exposure” was $20 million related to Nortel Networks, which filed  to reorganize under bankruptcy protection on Jan. 14.

Sanmina “considered collectibility of accounts receivable and determined that certain amounts may not be collectible.  Therefore, the Company deferred recognition of revenue in the amount of $5.0 million for shipments made during the three months ended December 27, 2008.”

The company also “determined that certain inventory balances may not be recoverable and provided a reserve for such inventories in the amount of $5.0 million during the three months ended December 27, 2008.”

Sanmina-SCI, the San Jose electronics contract manufacturer, said its stockholders approved a proposal by which its board may reverse-split shares of its stock anywhere from 1 share for every 3 to 1 for every 10 shares. The board has up to a year in which to take the step, which was approved Sept. 29.

As of June 28, 2008, Sanmina-SCI (ticker: SANM) had some 531 million shares of common stock outstanding. The board had urged shareholders to OK the reverse-split saying that the resulting higher price per share would attract “a broader range of institutions” to buy its shares who might be prohibited from buying shares of a company whose share price is below a certain threshold. Over the last year, Sanmina’s shares have closed as low as $1.07 and as high as $2.62, averaging $1.73. They closed Wednesday at $1.33, down 7 cents for the day, or 5 percent.

The step could also help the company combat a possible delisting of its shares from the Nasdaq market if they were to fall below $1 and remain there too long.

Electronics contract manufacturer Sanmina-SCI said Wednesday it would seek approval from shareholders to enact a reverse split of its stock “”within a range of one-for-three to one-for-ten, with the final ratio to be determined by the Board of Directors following stockholder approval,” which the company plans to seek at a special shareholders meeting in September.

No reason was given for the possible reverse split. Sanmina-SCI shares hit a 52-week low of $1.05 last week. The jumped 7.5 percent in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company reported sales for its third-quarter of $1.9 billion. In April the company had forecast sales of as much as $1.875 billion, according to Bloomberg.