“As a celebrity CEO, Apple’s Steve Jobs is about as iconic as the iPods and iMacs that have become part of the global lexicon. However, for the last year, he’s been under a spotlight that’s been casting some dark shadows,” Darrell Smith reports for The Sacramento Bee.
Smith reports, “[Last] week, he got a bit of a reprieve when the SEC closed its civil investigation into the company’s stock options backdating troubles, filing lawsuits against two Apple officials, but not Jobs himself. The Securities and Exchange Commission even praised the Cupertino-based tech giant, calling Apple’s cooperation with the investigation ‘swift, extensive and extraordinary.'”
“However, the cloud over Jobs, who 30 years ago cofounded the company that gave the world Macintosh, iMac and the iPod, hasn’t lifted entirely,” Smith reports.
Smith reports, “There’s still a federal investigation and shareholder lawsuits against the company that could lead to Jobs’ stepping down or even his ouster.
“‘It doesn’t look good for Steve, no matter how you look at it. There’s a reasonable chance that he will get charged. The evidence looks pretty damning,’ said Rob Enderle, founder and principal analyst at San Jose-based Enderle Group, which analyzes the tech industry,” Smith reports.
“Not everyone feels so strongly that Jobs’ future is in doubt. “The case is either weak or the stakes are too low. It seems like there is a strong indication that not much is going to come of (the investigations),” said Christopher Null, a San Francisco-based analyst at Yahoo Tech,” Smith reports.
Smith asks, “However, if the Apple cart were upset, could the company survive without the jeans-wearing Jobs, the company’s public face and spiritual leader?”
Full article here.
When will reporters figure out that calling quote whore Rob Enderle for their articles makes them look as idiotic as Enderle himself? The good news is that if Enderle thinks Jobs is in trouble, then Jobs is almost certainly in the clear.
Enderle strikes again!
Shareholders forcing out Jobs? I don’t see this happening.
I give him 100% credit for moving Apple’s stock from around $3.00/share when they purchased NeXT to whatever it is today (I think around $100.00/share and this is after it split 2 or 3 times).
Go ahead, force him out. Then watch your stock stagnate or drop.
This guy is a tool. There’s no way that the stockholders would ever dream of forcing Steve Jobs out of Apple.
This is a relief. Enderle is the George Costanza of tech analysts: every instinct he’s ever had has been wrong, so just believe “the opposite” of anything he says.
(Isn’t this where…)
In other news, Ballmer thinks the iPhone will not be a huge hit.
Why is it news that Apple is always given no credit. Sure it’s great to iCal these things and go back and laugh, but why so much mind-space for this drivel? If you want to make us out to be zealots, you’re doing a good job.
(Am I a zealot by posting this? Hmmmm…)
(…we cam in?)
Uhm, what “evidence” is Enderle talking about? If he read the SEC complaint against Heinen and Anderson, I didn’t see any documentable “evidence” against Steve, otherwise, he would have been charged along with those two.
What do you call two idiots in an office? The Enderle group.
This was a reply from a reporter named Jessica Guynn, a so-called reporter for the SF Chronicle when I asked her why they quoted a bozo like Enderle. “He’s a longtime analyst who is enough of a generalist that he can speak to a number of companies in different areas. Reporters often turn to him when they cannot find an analyst covering a particular company or trend. Hope that helps!”
He is enough of a generalist to be generally wrong!
What “evidence” has Enderle been given access? Who else has access to this “evidence”? How much of the evidence of Apple’s blundering is confidential and privileged, and how much is publicly available? How many of these pseudo-techno-wizards like Enderle have any substantial understanding of SEC rules and regulations?
no mention of the apple board public statement ?
“‘It doesn’t look good for Steve, no matter how you look at it.
Well we all know how he ‘looks’ at it. Clearly Enderle needs an oculorectomy….where they cut the nerve connecting his eyeball to his asshole. It will improve his shitty outlook on life.
MW..analysis….I’m not kidding
That’ll teach you to make fun of me.
One word from Bill Gates into the prez’s ear is all it takes to have Jobs bouncing off the cinder blocks of his 8X6 cell.
The only other job that I know of where you can be wrong as often as Rob Enderle and still be employed is as a TV weatherman.
Hmm, it’s awfully funny how Enderle is the ONLY ONE reporting this. What a clueless troll this guy is…..
Hope I get to meet this man face to face one day…
…so Enderle has a pseudonym now. It says Darrell Smith but it smells just like an unshowered Rob Enderle. For the love of God, man, get yourself some self-respect …or at least buy some for someone else as an act of contrition.
As an Apple shareholder, I have a message for Mr. Jobs:
Nice work, Steve!
Seriously, this is just hooey, and it should go to show that Steve is *completely* safe and probably didn’t do anything wrong at all. Enderle’s Seal Of Approval is enough for me. ;P
Please excuse my husband. He forgot to take his med’s this morning….
Is there some event that will occur in the (hopefully) near future that will once and for all absolve SJ of any guilt in this? I thought that pretty much happened last week, but I guess not?
Leave it to the nation’s other boy wonder to try to breath life into a otherwise dead and aging story line…
And yes the other boy wonder is of course none other than G. W. Bush – who gets the credit for the nation’s ongoing nightmare!
Sigh… do we have to bring up politics?
Fudmeister strikes again.
As pointed out in the comments here:
http://www.macalope.com/2007/04/28/previously-on-apple-options-scandal/
Either Fred was lying earilier when he initially gave his statement to the SEC, or he’s lying now after settling with the SEC to save whats left of his rep. Either way, Steve Jobs is in the clear.
Jobs is going to hit the glass ceiling.
“Look Mommie, the monkey is talking again. What’s it saying?”
“It says that Steve Jobs is in trouble because of the options issue.”
“Oh Mommie, that’s not good. I’m scared for Steve Jobs.”
“Don’t worry honey. The talking monkey has NEVER been right before. It’s not about to start.”
If the share holders want Jobs to step down, they might as well SELL all of their shares. they would be total morons.