“Apple Computer Inc.’s chief executive, Steve Jobs, is expected to captivate an audience of thousands at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center tomorrow as he unveils Apple’s newest products at the company’s annual trade show,” Hiawatha Bray reports for The Boston Globe.
Bray reports, “But this year’s show-and-tell is more keenly anticipated than most, and not just because Apple’s expected to offer a combination cellphone-digital music player, along with a way to beam video and music from personal computers to home stereos and TV sets. Some industry-watchers think the appearance could be Jobs’s last, because the company was caught back-dating stock options.”
Bray reports, “‘If Steve Jobs were anything other than what he is, he’d already be gone,’ said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, a high-tech research firm. ‘There was a crime committed . . . it looks like Steve Jobs was kind of the ringleader.'”
Bray reports, “Jobs’s renowned perfectionism and his love of elegant design are credited for most of the company’s success. That’s why Apple investors and the company’s board are desperate to shield Jobs from the scandal, said Lucian Bebchuk, director of the Program on Corporate Governance at Harvard Law School. Apple stock jumped nearly 5 percent last month after the board issued a report from a panel led by former Vice President Al Gore that concluded Jobs had broken no laws. ‘It’s clear that the board very much wanted him to stay,’ Bebchuk said. ‘The market likes an outcome under which he can stay.'”
“Jobs is also under scrutiny for apparent options backdating at Pixar Animation Studios, the computer animation company he once owned. While Jobs himself never got Pixar options, the company used them to reward other top executives, including John Lasseter, director of hit Pixar movies like ‘Toy Story,'” Bray reports. “Walt Disney Co. bought Pixar for $7.4 billion in 2006. Jobs is now one of the largest shareholders in Disney and sits on the company’s board. Thus his involvement with options backdating could tarnish not one but two legendary firms.”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Report: Apple axed lawyer who worked on Steve Jobs’ stock-option grant – January 05, 2007
RUMOR: Steve Jobs will take leave of absence from Apple Computer – January 05, 2007
Apple CEO Steve Jobs getting special treatment in options backdating scandal? – January 04, 2007
Could Apple thrive without Steve Jobs? – January 04, 2007
Apple stock-option fallout: investor lawsuit and twin U.S. gov’t investigations – January 04, 2007
WSJ: Steve Jobs, backdating miscreant – January 03, 2007
Should Steve Jobs be allowed to survive Apple’s options backdating scandal? – January 02, 2007
Apple options probe shines spotlight on former execs Anderson and Heinen – January 02, 2007
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Analyst: U.S. Gov’t unlikely to ‘nail Apple and Steve Jobs’ – December 28, 2006
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Apple to investigate stock option grant ‘irregularities’ made between 1997 and 2001 – June 29, 2006
What? No MDN take? I’m so sad.
I think this “article” is FUD, but whatever.
give us a break…
“Rob Enderle” …. how is he quilified to make a statement on ESOP back-dating ?
Blobs have become more informative than the established press.
Email the Globe and tell them what a joke the story is given its sources.
Of course it’s FUD. Didn’t you see Enderle’s name mentioned?
MW method — their method is obvious.
“Bray reports, “‘If Steve Jobs were anything other than what he is, he’d already be gone,’ said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, a high-tech research firm. ‘There was a crime committed . . . it looks like Steve Jobs was kind of the ringleader.'”
Already dismissed as crap.
Will someone please send Rob Enderle to Iraq?
“Is legendary Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the way out?”
…of the door on the way to MacWorld.
That’s about the only sense to be made of THAT.
What does Pocahontas say?
Oops, let me edit that…
“Bray reports, “‘If Steve Jobs were anything other than what he is, he’d already be gone,’ said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group, some old guy, his wife, and a crappy website that issues press releases based on no truth or real research whatsoever. ‘There was a crime committed . . . it looks like Steve Jobs was kind of the ringleader.'”
there… that’s better.
The only way SJ is leaving Apple will be in a box.
Apple is the first company he created.
I can’t see him leaving for many years yet – the Apple Board would’nt allow it, he’s turned around the company in such a quick and amazing way.
Alot of CEOs could never have done that, infact I would say that any other CEO would have resigned by now – it was one hell of a Mammoth Undertaking.
Tick, tick, tick…Tomorrow is Steve’s last Keynote, exit from Cupertino very soon.
Oh, Enderle is just freakin’ SALAVATING at the thought of Jobs stepping down! It’s his ultimate wet-dream.
I would really like to see Rob Enderle fall on his sword…
Where does he get off coming out with all this crap?
As Microsoft fails and Apple ascends, will he become worse?
I wonder.
Yes, it’s salivating. Some of us check at work, I’m typing fast, excuse typos!
Folks, Steve Jobs committed a FEDERAL CRIME. He committed FRAUD. And although he is a legendary visionary, he acted ILLEGALLY & UNETHICALLY. He really has no choice but to step down. If he doesn’t, the Federal Investigators may force him to step down. If this was any other man or any other company, you guys would be shouting bloody murder, but the truth of the matter is that Apple cannot survive without Steve Jobs and so we are all scared sh**less about Steve Jobs being forced out. I’m just as worried as anybody else, but he committed a major crime. Here’s some good articles outlining this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/business/yourmoney/07every.html?em&ex=1168318800&en=14a488626bde7fed&ei=5087

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/16404196.htm
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/16404067.htm?source=rss
Headlines for grabbing hits…
Is Rob Enderle an islamic terrorist?
Does Enderle ‘kind of’ smoke meth?
Do Ferrari laptops make Enderle a better lover? We ask other employees at The Enderle Group for their thoughts.
I’m glad y’all keep your pollyanna going, and it may be that you don’t think what he did was particularly wrong, but they’ve got the truth of it — if this were anyone else, he’d have been run out of town on a rail already in a desprate attempt to save the company’s reputation.
But Jobs *is* the company, and we love the products so much, we’re willing to let some indiscretion slide. Even shareholders are trying to pretend like nothing’s wrong.
I don’t think he’s doomed, but it’s not because he didn’t do anything wrong. And given the media and the shareholders’ response, he’d be naive not to do it again.
A little polish off the halo.
“CRIMINAL,” Mr. Enderle?
The only thing “criminal” here is calling yourself and your butt-ugly wife a “group”!
(But then again, I’ve heard she has her own Zip Code.)
Bagdad Rob gets a new donkey to bray!
I wonder why MDN even bothered with this crap.
Even if SJ did leave tomorrow don’t you think a man of his talent hasn’t by now built a team of people at Apple to be able to continue on in the same way without him? It’s part of the job of being CEO. He isn’t going to want to drift off into retirement and see the company drift into mediocrity after all the good work he has done by assembling the team that he has.
A visionary he might be but the company seems to have a far more capable group of people in it now than when he left last time. They will not make the same mistake twice however the press won’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.
S
Can’t he step down from CEO and remain at Apple?
“Kind of the ringleader”?
WTF?
He rather meant to possibly continue:
“And I’m sort of an analyst. My understanding is potentially, nearly adequate. And I could be possibly misinformed. Maybe. What was the question?”
He must have possibly put the “er” in Enderle. Uh, yeah. Did I leave the car running?
I’ll tell you in one word.
NO!
Enderle is a tool. How can anyone believe a word that he says?
Thanks, Switched and Unsquirted. You said a mouthful. Let the WinFanBoys rot in their own excrement and watch the Jobs team (with or without him) roll on!
Get real people. If Jobs steps down, unless he’s in the slammer (doubtful), Apple simply hire him back as a ‘Consultant’