“Apple Inc. may find its most valuable asset is something it can’t protect through patents or secrecy: Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs,” Connie Guglielmo reports for Bloomberg.
Guglielmo reports, “If Jobs were to leave, shares of the Cupertino, California- based company might drop 25 percent or more, analysts say. That would erase about $20 billion in Apple’s market value. ‘It would be a disaster,’ said Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray & Cos. in Minneapolis, who’s had an ‘outperform’ rating on Apple’s shares since June 2004. ‘He would be almost impossible to replace.'”
“The computer maker’s dependence on its CEO was illustrated the last week of December, when the stock dropped as much as 5.8 percent after The Recorder, a San Francisco-based legal publication, reported Apple had faked documents to backdate stock options,” Guglielmo reports. “On Dec. 29, the company said its own investigation, led by Apple director and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, cleared Jobs of any wrongdoing. That eased concern Jobs may have to step down and sent the shares up 4.9 percent.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Gandalf” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Could Apple thrive without Steve Jobs? – January 04, 2007
Analyst: U.S. Gov’t unlikely to ‘nail Apple and Steve Jobs’ – December 28, 2006
What would Apple be worth without Steve Jobs? – December 27, 2006
Piper Jaffray: Steve Jobs not at risk in stock options case – December 27, 2006
What happens when Steve Jobs dies? – August 20, 2003
Almost as much as David Beckham.
In comparison, when Gates will leave MS in 2008, I expect MS’s stock to go up.
Not even close philbaby… the Beckham deal was closed for 250 Million over a five-year period.
Granted, his presence could be a financial boon for the team but I seriously doubt his economic impact over five years for LA will amount to more than a couple of billion, if that.
When all is said and done, it is estimated Beckham will rake in 25 million a year. 10 million dollar salary, plus another 15 mil from jersey and ticket sales.
Michelle Wie, the 17-year-old golfer on the LPGA, never having won a professional tournament racks in $20 million each year just for showing up!
What? What? and What?!
Listen, if Martha can run a multi-billion dollar corp. from prison, so can Steve. Martha committed a bona-fida white collar crime, no gray area there – it was insider trading period. She came back, her company is in decent shape, etc. etc.
If Steve has to pay a fine, or even serve some time, it will still be up to him to continue to run Apple – give me a big break. These little snippets really hum of making sure that Apple does not succees – at all cost.
Itemized:
Reality Distortion Field: $ 5-B
Logical Flaw Detector: $10-B
Force of Will: $ 5-B
Common Sense: Priceless
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I’ll get it right some day.
G4Dualie, have you factored in the boon in revenue that US hair salons and barbers will receive due to the great unwashed having to have the latest Beckham haircut? In the last 10 years the British and, more recently, Spanish economies have been growing at a rate of between 1.7-2.9% y/y on such coiffeur craziness. In fact it’s what is keeping recession from our shores.
Beckham is washed up. It will be interesting for a year assuming he doesn’t get sildelined with injuries (and that is a big assumption). Then, like Pele before him, Americans will continue to watch hockey, football, basketball, baseball and bay watch and ignore that sport the rest of the world rates ans number 1.
Beckham with then either retire and become a hollywood actor, or the govenor of California.
That’s kind of scary. He is human, right?
Watching the Keynote, you saw how close his team are; Jobs, Schiller, Ives and Cook. Even from a distance it looks a dream team I’d say.
If he was fired:
– the team would all join him within one week
– Mango Inc. would be formed by them
– Mango Inc. buys the assets of Apple Inc. for $1
– Mango Inc. renamed Apple Inc.
Stock price goes back to $125 within 3 months.
And all is well with the world again.
…Beckham is washed up… <– hair gel.
Message to Steve Jobs:
Please do the world a favor and buy an island right now. Set it up with satellite internet, and a comfortable, creative environment. That way, if some over-zealous prosecutor with his mind on seeing his name in the papers and on TV gets it in his head to use you as his vehicle, you can jump on your Gulf Stream, quietly slip outta Dodge and continue your great work beach-side.
If SJ goes to jail – stock will drop 25% but if his sentence is 6 months and he comes back it will go up bymore than the drop.
Its not like he cannotconducthis business from jail on his iPhone:) why do you you think he has built such a sophisticated iJail phone.
“science” as in no rocket science
I’ve been trying to make some sense of the political aspect of any federal prosecution, but it’s hard with me not living in California.
Here in NY, Elliott spitzer earned a lot of political points going after “greedy” corporate leaders and investment houses on issues like price rigging, illegal after hours trading, and misleading analyst recomendations on stocks. All of these things actually hurt people (many small investors), or were clearly done for personal benefit on behalf of the perpurtrators. This is why there was public support for Spitzer, even in though he was going after NY companies.
However, he was going after people who were fairly anonymous to the average person.
With Apple though, would the prosecutor face a public backlash by taking down a company that (1) people like (even if Steve himself may be disliked and (2) employes a lot of people in the immediate vicinity and has generated a lot of local wealth. In addition, he would be hurting the people who suppolsedly been damaged (the shareholders).
I’d like to hear the opinion of someone who lives in Silicon Valley and has a take on the local opinion, as that is part of what shapes a prosecutor’s decision to pursue a case. Just look at the Duke lacrosse case.
ndelc,
SJ doesn’t need an island. Despite what you may have heard, Steve won’t be heading off to exile any time soon.
OTOH, a certain President of ours recently purchased 100,000 acres in Paraguay. Kinda makes you think there is an exit strategy after all.
Who’s David Beckham?
Notice to all Mac fanatics
The worst of this is still ahead. Steve’s survival is very much in question. He does not help himself with the extreme arrogance he is so known for and much talked about hubris that accompanys his keynotes and other media appearance.
He is very high profile and a good candidate for proving that corporate shenanigans will not be tolerated.
Now, go ahead and blast away, but the reality is what it is in spite of all those around this forum who wish it was something else or nothing at all.
this Beckham business, it’s all about what Posh wants. She wears the trousers in that family unit. She never liked living in Madrid, so end of contract, I am certain out came her address book and lo & behold a few calls later she is already picking mansions and deciding which school to send their kids to. Next thing, we will be seeing her alongside some BradP or JohnnyD, dreadful movie which will prove to the world that she can’t act.
MDN word, thought, as in ‘thought for the day’
“Who’s David Beckham?”
Mr. Posh Spice
The phony investigation is about getting Steve under control – reining him in. Steve has always shown independence, money doesn’t drive him, making good stuff that makes people’s lives better does. That conflicts with pretty much all of the corporate world.
There’s a famous quotation from Steve probably nearly ten years old now, I can’t recall it exactly (though I bet many Wall Street types can) but when asked about share price fluctuations Steve said something like he ignores the Street because they don’t know what they are talking about.
The corporate world gets a hold on business people first through accountants, small stuff at first, backdating documents is the prime example. When it’s time to file your accounts the accountant hasn’t completed them but he insists he will get them done in time or even if a couple of days late he’ll be able to swing it for you with the IRS and so you are persuaded to sign a blank, dated form.
Wall Street crushes people’s fortunes easily, they spread rumors about the CEO, board etc. Very simply what they do is publish advice that the company board ‘should’ follow. When the board doesn’t follow the advice it is criticized in the financial press and the stock price falls, which puts pressure on the board to follow the advice even though they think it is wrong. Steve was above all that, he hadn’t any shares in Apple, he didn’t need the money.
Steve can’t be bothered to deal with the machinations, too many good and creative types get lost in the world of finance and forget what they should be doing, he employs what he believes are good guys and trusts them. Someone in the finance dept at Apple sold him out, told him this stock option allocation was the right thing to do, Steve wasn’t fully paying attention and trusted the advice.
Remember his $1 salary, how he refused any remuneration, eventually the board persuaded him to accept (forced upon him) a jet and some stock options. Ever wonder why? Steve was immediately widely criticized for excessive remuneration – coincidence or part of the plan?
Heh heh, funny how this kinda turned in to a Becham thread for a while. He is a good footballer without doubt, but he has never ever been even close to a Pele, Maradonna, Zico, Beckenbauer, Van Basten, Eusebio, Best, Ronaldinho etc. The list could go on and on of players way better than him. Anyway, Steve Jobs at this moment and time is almost priceless to Apple Inc. He is the man with the vision, who knows where all of this is going. I like most of his potential successors but I think Scott Forstall did a really good job on stage when introducing parts of Leopard like Time Machine. He had a strong presence but was good humoured also. He seemed like the onewho was closest to being in the mould of Jobs. Perhaps he will take over Apple within the next 10/15 years.
I love Apple hardware and software and want them to continue creating ‘insanely great’ products and services. As a shareholder, i’m even more worried about the day Steve Jobs stops working at Apple, Inc. I think there’s too much emphasis on Jobs and not enough on the entire company. When there’s so much emphasis on 1 person, anything that happens to that person is magnified.
I’d look at Tony Fadell as a possible successor to Jobs in maybe 5-10 years. He thought about a mp3 player + online music distribution business and shopped the idea around, worked at General Magic (kinda like the Newton), worked at Philips, started up his own company, etc. I think he’d be an interesting option for CEO in 5-10 years.
“Who’s David Beckham?”
Victoria’s “Secret”
Lots of people sound off without knowing what the hell they are talking about.
Let’s consider Martha for a moment – her only “crime” (that is to say what really sent her to prison) was that she was so bull headed she refused the advice of those close to her, and the advice of the Government and refused to admit she had done anything wrong! All she had to do was say, “I screwed up – here’s your money back,” and she would have gotten probation at best.
Now Steve on the other hand, DIDN’T EVEN TAKE THE MONEY!
Common – doesn’t anybody think before they spout off?
Those who think he is going to jail, or will be forced to leave Apple Inc., need to come up with an actual real live case where someone did exactly what he did and got that kind of sentence.
Otherwise STFU!