In a list of rumors he’s picked up from trading desks and other industry sources this morning, TheStreet.com’s Doug Kass drops this thermonuclear bombshell:
“Apple will announce that Steve Jobs will be taking a leave of absence from the company.”
That’s it. No other information is included. One might speculate that, if it were to occur, such a leave of absence might be due to the stock options imbroglio, a health issue (we hope not!), new venture (?), or some other unknown reason.
Doug Kass is founder and president of Seabreeze Partners Management, Inc., and the general partner and investment manager of Seabreeze Partners Short LP and Seabreeze Partners Short Offshore Fund, Ltd. Until 1996, he was senior portfolio manager at Omega Advisors, a $4 billion investment partnership. Before that he was executive senior vice president and director of institutional equities of First Albany Corporation and JW Charles/CSG. He also was a General Partner of Glickenhaus & Co., and held various positions with Putnam Management and Kidder, Peabody. Kass received his bachelor’s from Alfred University, and received a master’s of business administration in finance from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1972. He co-authored “Citibank: The Ralph Nader Report” with Nader and the Center for the Study of Responsive Law and currently serves as a guest host on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Full article here.
Uhm…don’t think so. Someone just wants lots of hits.
Well would this be due to his health (remember how he looked last year) or because he got his hands caught in the cookie jar?
Let me be the first to call Bullsh*t. Just a rumor spread by a short seller to lock up some gains.
But not before the SteveNote!
Worrisome. Let’s analyze for a second. Why would he?
1) Health, god forbid. We can’t know that. 2) Then, options thing? Unlikely, after the absolution the board has given him. Unless new issues have appeared, again god forbid. 3) His own reasons, like a new venture, a break, Pixar? Also unlikely. He doesn’t take breaks. He’s doing fine with Pixar. Though the options thingy may have worn him down and may offer an excuse to clear the air and temporarily recuse himself from operations.
Overall, unlikely. But we can’t really know.
As long as he’s back for the next keynote, it is ok by me!
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Sell, sell, sell.
Or not.
No way in hell.
Just another pre-keynote attempt to get hits on a website or make the stock plunge to be able to sell short. Happens every year…
l wouldn`t think so… apple is his life… Apple needs him, who would do the keynotes nextweek then? Maybe after the next keynote he might state he is leaving for awhile…
best wishes steve will miss you. come back soon.
Maybe someone is a little upset that they missed the stock buying opportunity last week and want to artifically lower the price again leading into the keynote? Silly yes, but crazier things have happened.
Just found out his moving to microsoft
Well, this guy got the attention he wanted along with his stock manuever and the under the table monetary incentive from M$.
Steve, if he wanted, could just do the keynotes, etc. every year and leave the rest to the upper tight-knit circle. He would never announce that he was taking a leave of absence at the prime time of his company’s growth with no peak in sight. Yeah, right. But the bozos will still sell their shares and make those with a brain buy even more and cheaper. We should thank this guy instead.
He has been giving more and more time to other high-ups at Apple over the last couple major presentations….possibly priming them for taking over the stage.
See how he is a very smart person with good business sense, he knows that if Apple is going to continue as it has been in the last 10 years, someone else is eventually going to take over. A short leave of absense is a good way to let them test the waters, while knowing that he is coming back to check on you and see how things are going. Better that way than completely unexpectedly and with people who are not prepared.
> Just found out his moving to microsoft
and Ballmers moving to Apple.
mac1984,
Steve sold Pixar to Disney and he now holds the most Disney stock of any single person, but no longer owns Pixar
This doesn’t make any sense. Steve has been quoted as saying that 2007 will be the most exciting year for new products in Apple’s history. Why would he choose now to leave?
No way in Hell! He was just quoted as calling 2007 the most exciting product years in Apple History. Why would he leave now???
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/12133/
Damn U James! 1 minute! U Suck!
imagine if you will…amidst the usual idol-worshipping keynote frenzy, Steve (Bilbo) thanks everyone for coming, recognizes Apple’s 30th birthday, then slips on the iPod of Power and vanishes from the stage…
….And he also has a brother named Jack.
“imagine if you will…amidst the usual idol-worshipping keynote frenzy, Steve (Bilbo) thanks everyone for coming, recognizes Apple’s 30th birthday, then slips on the iPod of Power and vanishes from the stage…”
That won’t happen until the eleventy-first aniversary.
Ok here it is fresh from the farm… apple buying microsoft… no wait microsoft buying apple… Nah bill gates leaving microsoft to join apple.
Read Kass’s bio. His history is in short selling stocks. That is a scheme in which the short seller makes money when the price of a stock drops. So he starts a rumor that Jobs will be gone from Apple. How smarmy is that? This deserves zero credibility.
Steve did NOT get caught with “his hand in the cookie jar”. The backdating of options is perfectly legal. It’s the not reporting of them that is the problem. This is all a tempest in a teapot. Steve’s been exonaerated for cryin’ out loud. He’s not leaving.