Ain’t Nobody’s Business If Jobs Is or Isn’t
by Kara Swisher
Posted on July 28, 2008 at 5:33 PM PT
So, I have been standing by, trying to make sense of the debate that has swirled around Apple CEO, Co-Founder and font-of-all, Steve Jobs, with regard to his health or, more specifically, the lack thereof.
And after listening to all of the debate about it–mostly indignant declarations by the media, making their case mostly by wheedling milder indignant declarations from stock analysts and corporate tsk-tsk outfits–I have concluded that what is ailing Jobs is exactly no one’s business.
Even if his every breath is critical to the ongoing operations of Apple, the reason most use as their main argument for Jobs to tell all, it goes double.
Why?
Well, any Apple (AAPL) investor has to know by now that Jobs suffered from a rather serious bout with a curable version of pancreatic cancer some years ago and that recovery includes inevitable complications.
That was on display when he took to the stage of Apple’s most recent Worldwide Developers Conference in mid-June and looked really gaunt and unhealthy. It was obviously hard to look away.
People immediately reacted like it was the end of the world–which is no surprise given Apple’s rabid following–and began to suddenly acquire instant medical degrees and diagnose Jobs on the spot.
In its typically secretive style, Apple did not help matters by throwing out a thin gruel of information and noting it was only a common bug.
Of course, that felt like a bigger whopper than usual–even if he did, in fact, also have a cold, it kind of begged the question of what accounted for the rest of his haggard appearance.
In any case, the chatter went on and on, right up until the most recent quarterly earnings call when Apple’s CFO said, when asked that Jobs’s health, that it was a “private matter.”
Immediately, that sent the debate into a frenzy, as armchair word detectives went into overdrive about exactly what that meant. (Personally, I think it meant that Apple was saying Jobs’s health was a private matter.)
This weekend, the noise level reached a quantum level after Jobs made a can’t-make-this-up statement to New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, who was inquiring as to Jobs’s well-being:
“This is Steve Jobs. 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.”
Now that just cracked me up, given all that had gone on before, although some were once again indignant over the gall of a major company CEO making such a statement.
Obviously, they have never met or heard Jobs, who is well known for doing such things pretty much all the time.
And that’s the problem here and my main argument for leaving him be:
1) As I said, Apple investors who have not figured Jobs’s precarious health–after a round with any kind of cancer–into their investment strategies about Apple going forward need some serious reality medication themselves.
Guess what? Jobs has been really sick and it means he is going to have a harder time with any kind of infection or complication for the rest of his life, and he will likely be more delicate than someone who has not had cancer.
By the way, the take-away from the Nocera article and an earlier one last week in the New York Times was that Jobs had been quite ill, but not life-threateningly ill. Which was Jobs’s way of getting out the news.
2) Jobs is one of the most important CEOs, in relation to his company, around. (Warren Buffett, who did choose to reveal all when he was sick, is the other.) And that’s another thing investors should be figuring into their calculations on the worth of the stock.
As Jobs himself said in a famous commencement speech to Stanford University: “No one wants to die. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it.”
You don’t have to get as dramatic as all that to know that when you are talking about such a charismatic and critical CEO as Jobs, any lack of involvement by him–like say going on a year-long yoga retreat–is going to be a problem that investors are buying when they buy the stock.
Of course, there are other Apple employees making things work at the company, although it sometimes feels as if Jobs is crafting every iPhone that goes out.
But it’s obviously the Steve Jobs Show, and investors risk that when they buy such a ticket–kind of like anyone who bought a ticket to Celine Dion’s recent show in Las Vegas and hoped she would not get, like, a common cold!
3) And, of course, we get to the secretive Apple culture story line in every single story, which is trotted out like it is a surprise and we should all be so angry about it and demand change.
Again, have we not been paying attention all these many years? When has Apple not been secretive, except when it suits itself?
Here are a few more shockers for those still stewing about Apple’s secretiveness: Sen. Barack Obama is African-American and Sen. John McCain is old and some people in the country are racist and ageist and may hold those things against them in the upcoming Presidential election!
All kidding aside, it’s the same media that wait in eager anticipation when Jobs doles out the often-disingenuous tidbits about various Apple products coming and then hype them to the high heavens for him when he deigns to unveil them.
In other words, the Steve Jobs you are getting right now is the Steve Jobs you have always gotten–on his terms, what he wants to say and when and how.
So don’t be surprised when he does just that.
Meanwhile, Jobs has come to our D: All Things Digital conference many times and chatted up a storm. Here he is in a highlights reel of the historic joint interview with Microsoft CEO and Founder Bill Gates in 2007.
In it, Jobs is quite voluble about their longtime rivalry and also reveals their secret relationship that dares not speak its name (he is kidding):
Comments
So why does Steve Jobs just say “I’ve had cancer in the past, I’ve recovered, but here’s the succession plan in case something happens in future”?
Warren Buffett did it and it was very straight forward.
Posted by Adrian Bye at July 28th, 2008 at 3:43 pmI love the D: All Things Digital video. Excellent!
Posted by Neil Anderson at July 28th, 2008 at 10:04 pmA:
Because he is not Warren Buffett and he is not very straight forward as Buffett has made his career being.
Posted by Kara Swisher at July 28th, 2008 at 10:13 pmIn Basic v. Levinson, the Supreme Court set forth the principal that companies need not disclose pending merger negotiations until a deal is actually signed, but if they choose to comment, they must do so truthfully. Since then, every question about merger discussions has been met with “no comment.” The reason is that if a company consistently and truthfully says “we are not up for sale” and then suddenly says “no comment,” everyone will know they are up for sale. And so it is with Steve Jobs’ health. The company has no obligation to provide updates on his health, but if they choose to do so unless and until he becomes unable to perform his duties, but if it does comment about his health, it must do so truthfully. And once it starts down that road, it would become a bad riff on Verizon’s “can you hear me now” commercial, where the company would be asked the question in every call, at every conference no matter what the venue – how is he now ? Now ? Is he still OK NOW ? And the company would have to answer truthfully each and every time, and it would beyond the competence of a non-medically trained CFO to provide full disclosure about a medical issue. And the first time he tried to put the genie back in the bottle and say “no comment,” the death watch would start and the stock would plunge. Steve Jobs is mortal. And he had cancer. And he will be very thankful for every day he is given for the rest of his life. And even if Apple comes right out and say he is perfectly healthy today, that conveys no guaranty whatsoever about how he will be next week. If you can’t stomach that, sell the stock, and buy something safe. Like perhaps one of the leading financial stocks.
Posted by Mark Moran at July 28th, 2008 at 10:18 pmM:
Well said.
Posted by Kara Swisher at July 28th, 2008 at 10:32 pmN:
Thanks! We have the whole thing posted in pieces on this site or you can get it free as a download on iTunes.
Posted by Kara Swisher at July 28th, 2008 at 10:32 pmGreat articulation.
People love the armchair analysis on this topic seemingly more than any other (topic) in recent memory.
In part, I think it’s because the chatter throws the market into a tizzy, which excites the shorts and exasperates the typical short-attention span investor.
The company is one of a kind in every paradoxical sense of the word. Truly without peer.
Posted by Mark Sigal at July 29th, 2008 at 2:04 amAs a follow up to Mark Moran’s post I think that Apple should make the following statement….
“Steve Jobs is going to die. We aren’t exactly sure when and it may be sudden or it may be long-felt, however the one certainty we can tell you is that he is going to die. We hope this resolves any questions you have related to his health.”
That would be better than a “no comment and would be a truthful statement. It would also attempt to mock this rediculous effort at trying to predict the unpreditable future of Apple’s (or any other company’s) success.
Posted by Scott Stephens at July 29th, 2008 at 7:22 amI always appreciated the Steve Jobs’ contributions to the technology industry, independently that I am not a Macintosh’s user. In particular, about his current health problem, I don’t like the comments published in the last days because when you don’t have pain, when you are not sick, you cannot put in the position of who is suffering a disease. From my point of view, we have to respect the personal decision of the sick person if this decision is not against the formal obligations of an executive with his/her organization. I would like we respect the Steve Jobs’ secrecy culture. The debate of outsiders doesn’t help… It only more noise…
Domingo
Posted by Domingo Trassens at July 29th, 2008 at 8:20 amhttp://www.comlab-corp.com
You strike a good balance on Steve Jobs’s health in your very sensible article, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business if Jobs is or Isn’t.” Unfortunately, too many reporters descend into mere sensationalism on this story.
Speaking as someone who “bet the farm” on Apple products and Steve Jobs about ten years ago, and hasn’t looked back, I favor these adjectives, among others, for those journalists who obsess about Steve Jobs’s health: tawdry, sleazy, ghoulish.
When they demand more information about Steve’s health, the typical reporter-as-ghoul, utilizes these two saccharine sentiments: (1) we are only raising the health issue for the benefit of the shareholders; and (2) we certainly wish Steve a long life. But….
It is hard to know where to begin in responding to such journalistic sleaze, but these points come to mind:
– As a shareholder, I have done very well with my Apple stock, along with millions of other shareholders, and for many years Steve Jobs has only charged us a dollar per year for his work at Apple. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt if he wants to keep his health reports private. Ghouls please stop speaking for me!
– Steve Jobs, while a fascinating public figure, has not built a cult of personality. He has nurtured a company. Consider this analogy from American history: George Washington was tremendously important to the foundation of the American republic, both as general and president. Many an American loved the country because they loved Washington and they associated him with the army and the nation. But the country he nurtured was great not simply thanks to a heroic leader, but because it had resources beyond the active participation of any one individual. Similarly, the Apple nurtured by Steve Jobs — its designs, software, stores, advertisements, and hardware, as well as the thoughtful integration of thousands of men and women into giving it life is a living entity, is likely to be strong for a long time to come, thanks to the corporate structure and ethos Steve Jobs helped build.
– I too wish Jobs a long life, and I suspect that honoring his privacy could well be good for his health!
Posted by Bill Youngs at July 29th, 2008 at 9:29 amall things dmt…
Posted by Nathaniel Dimtricus at November 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pmabout the D Conference. You say it’s not like any other. Well, here’s at least one conference it’s like and looks like it copied ideas from:
TED
Posted by Sam Harrison at November 17th, 2008 at 12:53 pmWorse interview i’ve ever seen, i had to join this site just so i could say that.
Walt… you “um” and “ah” so much, you ruined the flow and made everyone uncomfortable, this was the biggest problem. Don’t tell Steve Jobs what he can’t say (post PC comment) people may have told you it’s a no no… this does not give you the right to pounce on others, or tease the man about his future plans (you may think you know him and can converse with him in such a way but it’s a live interview not your backyard BBQ), and don’t talk down your co-host even if your right too, and never over the guest/s.
Kara… oh dear, maybe your a good researcher and writer but your live interviewing skills are ridiculous, after the “tear in your eye” comment Steve did not look happy. Two of the biggest names in PC history are together and you speak like your on a lifestyle program. A pretty face just does not cut it in this industry. Remove your hand from your face!
Both of you… speak up and be confident with your words. No mumbling!
Bill gates did well to try save the interview, Steve Jobs as well, the best part was questions from the audience.
Disrespectful and Deplorable.
Posted by Daniel Barr at November 24th, 2008 at 10:05 am