There will be no Steve Jobs keynote address at Macworld 2009, “and the last thing the public relations folks at Apple want you to think is that the move has anything to do with Jobs’ health,” Mike Cassidy reports for The San Jose Mercury News. “Which is why they won’t say a thing about his condition. Not a hint. Not a clue. Not a peep. The long-standing company line? ‘Steve’s health is a private matter.'”
“Actually, it isn’t,” Cassidy writes.
“My health is a private matter. Your health is a private matter. Steve Jobs’ health is not a private matter. Steve Jobs’ health is Apple’s health. When Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, shows up gaunt in public or acknowledges that he is not going to show up in public at all, the company’s stock price dives,” Cassidy writes.
“Jobs has shareholders, employees and, yes, Mac fanatics depending on his continued prosperity and health. Is it odd? Yes, it’s very odd. There arguably is not another chief executive in the world who is so closely identified with the company he or she runs,” Cassidy writes.
“But it’s what Jobs signed up for, along with the jet and company stock. He created the image of Jobs as Apple, and now it’s time he live up to it by coming clean about his health.
When Jobs is sick or acting like he might be sick, people care. The blogosphere and news columns begin to fill with buzz and rumors and questions and predictions bordering on obsession,” Cassidy writes.
“It’s a problem,” Cassidy writes. “And it’s a problem that Apple has largely brought upon itself.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In the absence of the Uptick Rule, Steve Jobs’ health can never be adequately addressed to stop those who would manipulate the stock for their own or their clients’ gain.
Here’s the “MacDailyNews Take” on this issue by SteveJack on December 17, 2008:
Let’s face it: the way things are today, short of Jobs retiring, or God forbid, dropping dead, nothing is going to change the pattern of Steve Jobs health scares, regardless of whether they’re real, imagined, or invented manipulations intended to affect the price of Apple stock.
Jobs could walk on water this afternoon and some people would voice “concern” that he only accomplished it because he’s lost so much weight that he’s about to ascend into heaven.
There’s only so much Apple shareholders can take. An extremely well-positioned, successful company having its share price driven down artificially whenever some short seller desires to cry wolf, er… “gaunt” is not something serious, or even casual, investors welcome. Those who are charged with keeping order (SEC) in the markets are obviously incompetent, AWOL, or both. Perhaps, Jim Cramer and many others (see below for one example) are right in calling loudly for reinstatement of the uptick rule?
The chairman of the SEC [Christopher Cox] serves at the appointment of the president and has betrayed the public’s trust. If I were President today, I would fire him… Mismanagement and greed became the operating standard while regulators were asleep at the switch. The regulators were asleep, my friends, they were not working for you. [The SEC has allowed abusive short-selling, to turn] our markets into a casino. – Senator John McCain, September 18, 2008
So, the headline asks the ultimate question: In this current climate, with stock-price-affecting health “concerns,” real or not, that can only be alleviated via retirement or death, and in the absence of the uptick rule, has Steve Jobs become too much of a liability for Apple shareholders? With his “health” sitting there as ammunition to be used whenever the shorts desire to fire off a few rounds, can Steve Jobs remain as Apple CEO without the uptick rule in place?
We get email here. Some AAPL shareholders are not happy with what they consider to be obvious and uncontrolled manipulation.
In an attempt to achieve utter clarity, here’s the Either/Or statement: Either Steve Jobs has to go or the uptick rule has to return. Without one or the other, Apple shareholders are at the mercy of forces that have absolutely nothing to do the the company’s current and future performance. AAPL stock simply cannot be recommended, if its performance has little or nothing to do with the company’s actual results. Cancel or Allow?
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
NO!
Not again with this crap.
“Either Steve Jobs has to go or the uptick rule has to return. “
You’re being a bit dramatic, don’t you think? If Steve left, the stock would plummet to record lows. Apple is not losing serious stock value on Steve’s health – it bounces back after a while when people start using their heads and see how well the company is doing. It’s certainly better to have him stay and remain mum as the stupid rumors continue than to just say “alright, I’m outta here.”
With that said, the uptick rule does need to return. It’s so easy for an uninformed idiot to spread nonsense on a blog and completely collapse the entire market as a result. There has to be consequences for people who are guilty of this.
Come on! It’s not like stock price manipulation is illegal or anything.
Does MDN need to continually report these non-stories?
The manipulation of Apple stock based on rumors and other factors has gotten to the point of being ridiculous. I wrote a letter to the SEC today about this, and also mentioned that they need to bring back the uptick rule. Here is the page listing SEC contact information. I urge everyone who cares about Apple and is sick of this blatant manipulation to write the SEC personally. The more people they hear from, the more likely they are to do something:
http://www.sec.gov/contact/mailboxes.htm#complain
What he seriously needs to do is come up with an award winning diet regimen. The CEO diet!