Steve Jobs’ latest illness ‘not life-threatening’
p2pnet news view | Off Topic:- “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.”
That’s Apple boss Steve Jobs to the New York Times‘ Joe Nocera.
Subject? The possibility that Jobs is sick with an as-yet undefined illness, set off when, “in a conference call after the release of Apple’s earnings, a company executive responded to a question about Mr. Jobs’s condition by saying that it was ‘a private matter’,” reported John Markoff in the New York Times.
But, he said, “in recent weeks, Mr. Jobs has reassured several people that he is doing well”.
It is written, p2pnet said last week when stories about Jobs’ health began to circulate, “Apple = Steve Jobs. Jobs = Apple.”
We also quoted Silicon Alley Insider stating if Jobs is, “seriously ill, shareholders have every right to know this. The definition of ‘material information,’ after all, is information that the average investor would consider important in making an investment decision–and it’s hard to see how an Apple investor would not consider Steve’s health material’.”
In the more recent New York Times story, ” First of all, he is not like other chief executives —- he is, instead, the single most indispensable chief executive on the planet,” Joe Nocera has analyst Charles R.Wolf, saying: “Apple is Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs is Apple”
Secondly, Nocera goes on »»»
Jobs has had cancer, for crying out loud —- and in the public mind, a particularly insidious kind. Although several doctors I spoke to say that the kind of cancer he had, and the kind of operation he underwent, give him a better-than-even chance of living a long and happy life, there are no guarantees with cancer. We all know that. Which is all the more reason why, at a minimum, Apple should flatten the rumor that his cancer has recurred —- even if it won’t go further than that. “Not being able to provide a statement effectively dismissing the question is really unsatisfactory to most investors,” said A. M. Sacconaghi Jr., who follows the company for Sanford C. Bernstein.
The final reason, to be blunt about it, is that Apple simply can’t be trusted to tell truth about its chief executive. Under Mr. Jobs, Apple has created a culture of secrecy that has served it well in many ways —-the speculation over which products Apple will unveil at the annual MacWorld conference has been one of the company’s best marketing tools. But that same culture poisons its corporate governance. Apple tells analysts far less about its operations than most companies do. It turns low-level decisions into state secrets. Directors are often left out of the loop. And it dissembles with impunity.
Nocera adds »»»
“On Thursday afternoon, several hours after I’d gotten my final “Steve’s health is a private matter” — and much to my amazement — Mr. Jobs called me. “This is Steve Jobs,” he began. “You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.” After that rather arresting opening, he went on to say that he would give me some details about his recent health problems, but only if I would agree to keep them off the record. I tried to argue him out of it, but he said he wouldn’t talk if I insisted on an on-the-record conversation. So I agreed.
“Because the conversation was off the record, I cannot disclose what Mr. Jobs told me. Suffice it to say that I didn’t hear anything that contradicted the reporting that John Markoff and I did this week. While his health problems amounted to a good deal more than “a common bug,” they weren’t life-threatening and he doesn’t have a recurrence of cancer. After he hung up the phone, it occurred to me that I had just been handed, by Mr. Jobs himself, the very information he was refusing to share with the shareholders who have entrusted him with their money.
“You would think he’d want them to know before me. But apparently not.”
And although Nocera doesn’t say it, there’s also the small matter of the Apple spokesman who apparently lied (with or without Jobs’ knowledge) when he reportedly stated his boss had merely picked up a “common bug” and was taking a course of antibiotics.
.
.Stumble It!
New York Times -Apple’s Culture of Secrecy, July 26, 2008
New York Times -Talk of Chief’s Health Weighs on Apple’s Share Price, July 23, 2008
p2pnet – Has Steve Jobs’ cancer returned?, July 23, 2008
Silicon Alley Insider -Sorry, Apple, Steve Jobs’ Health Is NOT Just a “Private Matter”, July 21, 2008
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July 28th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
An apple a day