“Industry concerns about Steve Jobs’ health have not gone away more than a month after the Apple CEO appeared dramatically thinner at the firm’s annual developers’ conference, fighting what insiders at the time were calling a ‘bug,'” Brian Garrity and Peter Lauria report for The New York Post.
“Apple is due to report earnings today, but many investors and analysts remain as interested in news of the condition of the tech titan – who is a survivor of pancreatic cancer – as they are in the numbers themselves.
‘Apple’s hedge fund investors are very worried,’ said a Wall Street source who has spoken with some of the company’s stakeholders,” Garrity and Lauria report.
MacDailyNews Take: We imagine there was more from the same “Wall Street source.” Such as, “Also, I have a vested interest in seeing Apple’s stock price move down at this time.”
Garrity and Lauria continue, “After the conference in June, Apple reps blamed Jobs’ weight loss on an unspecified illness that required treatment with antibiotics. Since then, there’s been no update on his health, and company officials now are not commenting on it despite repeated requests. Multiple sources who have met with – and in some cases even dined with – Jobs in the weeks surrounding the introduction of the iPhone 3G on July 11, said they came away troubled by his thin appearance.”
Garrity and Lauria report, “One investor polled by The Post acknowledged to recently selling down his stake by ‘a few million shares’ as a hedge in case any more bad news comes out about Jobs’ health.”
MacDailyNews Take: Are you getting the message, yet?! Garrity and Lauria certainly know their audience. They need to hit their “readership” with it over the head repeatedly in the vain hope that something sticks. In other words: If you’re reading The New York Post “Business” section for actual “business” news, stay as far away from investing in individual stocks as possible.
Garrity and Lauria report, “Part of the reason for the concern over Jobs’ health – aside from genuine sympathy – is that Apple has no succession plan in place.”
MacDailyNews Take: Half truth. Make that “Apple has no publicly-announced succession plan in place,” and you have the whole truth.
The full hit piece, timed perfectly to today’s earnings announcement, Think Before You Click™, here.
MacDailyNews Take: You-know-who would be proud, if he’s not the Post’s “Wall Street source” himself.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
