(One of the nice things about blogs is when you have them you can say what you want, without an editor telling you what to do.)
The Apple CEO calls a reporter at the paper, but his insistence on not talking unless the conversation is off the record does little to assuage the fears of investors. Is this any way to treat Wall Street?
Steve Jobs is Apple, to put it simply. In each of the past several scares over the executives health — and there’s been a few — investors have been forced to ponder life beyond him.
The answer has been the same each time, and it’s not good. The stock has dropped, and investors have demanded more.
Last week was no exception. Following last Monday’s earnings call, and financial chief’ Peter Oppenheimer’s now oft-repeated phrase “Steve’s health is a private matter,” the stock opened Tuesday down 10 percent from its previous day’s closing price.
The question continued to dog Apple the entire week. Stories in the media — including here on BetaNews — began to ponder life after Steve. The New York Times chimed in with additional information, essentially laying out the CEO’s health history for all to see.
While Jobs’ cancer surgery has apparently removed the disease from his pancreas, as the NYT put it, there are no guarantees with cancer. Those with the disease can tell you, even though you may be “cancer free,” there’s no sure bet that it won’t return — and worse than before.
It’s the company’s dismissive nature of the question that seems to rub investors the wrong way. By continuing to dodge it publicly, Apple only contributes to the rumor mill, allowing for speculation of Jobs’ health based on his appearance — which arguably has been sickly as of late.
But that’s been the company’s modus operandi under the venerable executive for as long as many of us can remember. It says little about its affairs, little about its products until they are released, and little about anything related to the company.
This has gotten it into trouble already — and some could argue that the MobileMe fiasco is a result of this secrecy. With little to no widespread public testing (its not even clear if the service was tested outside of Apple at all for that matter), what was supposed to be one of the companies standout releases became a public relations nightmare of near-epic proportions.
Now its getting them into trouble again, and this time its over a facet of the company that could shake Apple to it’s core. With so much conflicting information out there, the company’s stock price is being driven now by rumor rather than actual facts.
Jobs’ effort to take on the NYT didn’t help. While his conversation was of length from the reporting Joseph Nocera did on the call, none of it could be republished.
What Nocera did say is troubling, however. He took the “common bug” excuse Apple used for Jobs’ appearance at WWDC and turned it on its head. It seems to be worse than that, although none of it contradicted the Times’ earlier reporting.
He said whatever was wrong with Jobs was more serious than that. Unfortunately, we will likely never know because he won’t share it publicly. That seems like a big problem. Essentially, Jobs calling Nocera and the NYT raised more questions than it answered.
Maybe its time for Mr. Jobs and Apple to come clean. After all, it is the investors who continue to pour money into the company that are making its rapid growth all the more possible.
Shareholders deserve some answers, and Jobs needs to give them. On the record.
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