“When the public learned that Apple Inc. founder and CEO Steve Jobs secretly bought a house in Memphis to recuperate from a 2009 liver transplant at Methodist Hospital, conspiracy theories swirled,” Marc Perrusquia reports for The Commercial Appeal.
“Did the California multi billionaire buy his way up the transplant list? And, some asked again last month, how did his surgeon end up purchasing the house from Jobs at a huge discount? The issue even made it to the Shelby County Commission recently when members pressed questions about the home,” Perrusquia reports. “The conjecture remains just that. Officials have said Jobs was put on a waiting list like anyone else. And his surgeon, Dr. James Eason, said he simply heard the two-story, 5,800-square-foot home in an exclusive Midtown neighborhood was available in 2011 after Jobs returned to California, so he bought it. The Apple founder died soon after.”
Perrusquia reports, “Yet, one detail overlooked in the controversy is how the State of Tennessee took a bath when it sold the former University of Tennessee Health Science Center chancellor’s home to a shell company Jobs set up, losing $475,000 in the sale. The loss had little to do with Jobs, however, and more to do with a decision to liquidate chancellor housing across the UT system – just as the biggest recession in 70 years was dawning. In the process of trying to sell the chancellor’s home in Memphis, the market crashed. Yet the state stuck with the decision to liquidate the home even as bids failed to materialize and a series of appraisals showed its value plummeting, according to records maintained by the Department of General Services in Nashville.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s all just conjecture, but Marc will trot it all out again anyway.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ellis D.” for the heads up.]
These university people are coddled too much. How about buying their own houses – they make enough. Mr. Jobs or his company was just smart, as always.
Drink that poison.
Agree. Steve looked at all sides, made a decision and moved. As it was clear he was dying , he let the house go.
Nuff said
No, not enough said. Small minded petty insignificant jackasses like Marc Perrusquia, whose entire life amounts to less than Steve jobs accomplished between any 2 given breaths will try to find some angle where Steve Jobs looks bad.
Why?
Simply because people whose life accomplishments are so little sometimes feel the need to knock down others who have done more. In short: small minded petty insecure arrogance.
Oh, sorry, my mistake…I thought you were talking about the anointed one for a moment there.
Oh look another Troll
Robbl, get a life.
Hey what’s your fuckin problem? I wasn’t talking about Jobs, or did that simply go over your ass wiped liberal head?
Use the word “liberal,” lose your credibility.
What’s next- “yo mama” jokes?”…. Do you actually think in those terms, or are they part of the subscription?
Yo mama is so old she farts dust.
Get a life.
So the market crashed, and they lost money on real estate. Just like tens if millions of people across the country. Hmm.
Now if they had made money in real estate during that period — that would be something to investigate.
hmmmmm. Well if there was a fast one pulled here we may find out the truth? Or we may not? Besides, it’s not about the real estate deal it’s clearly about the waiting list issue. Does money get you moved up on the list? Well of course it can. It shouldn’t but of course it can. Did it in this case? Will the truth ever been known? And if the truth ever does really come out will people accept the truth if they hear it? Intelligent people will. Fanboys and haters of course will not. Sometimes the truth hurts. Never put anyone on a pedestal.
‘ Never put anyone on a pedestal.’
No, just on a cross.
As to money having the power to move one up the transplant list. It isn’t structured so that would change it. Jobs did find a method to improve his odds of selection by getting on multiple lists. Nothing illegal there.
The transplant lists are also structured to account for need based on health. Jobs subsequent death does seem to indicate that his need was high enough to push him up the list. The issue is did wealth come directly into play. We can hope not. We can be callous and say so what. We be jaded and assume of course it did. It is fair to look into this but the final judgement should be based on evidence.
I don’t think the evidence of UT’s “loss” has any part in this. Did the surgeon pay fair market value when he bought it from Jobs? If so end of story unless there is other evidence to go on. If not then we still don’t know what role it played in selection but it would warrant investigation. UT’s choice to sell in a down market is smoke and the use of it to leads one to surmise that it is being brought into this as means to make it look like fire where none exsists.
Sounds like you have made up your mind in advance.
WWWHHHHAAAAAAaaaaaaaa……..
Shut up…. go away…… have a hush puppy and some mash….
The real issue is no one should have to game the system to receive life saving organ transplants. If you’re not registered for organ donation you’re part of the problem.
$475K? So what, that liver was worth hundreds of billions.
If Steve didn’t buy it, someone else would have wound up with it for even less.
Steve saved Tennessee some money.
It’s amazing how far people will reach to try to conform events to their own pre-determined viewpoints or outcomes.
1-Jobs’ came to Memphis because it had one of the shorter waiting lists in the country and the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center program at Methodist University Hospital has a solid rep.
2-Memphis real estate took a huge hit in the Bush Recession that we are still climbing our way out of. The house would have sold at a ‘loss’ if Elmer Fudd were the purchaser.
3-Dr Eason got a good deal and was doing just fine before the whole affair- it wasn’t about money. Top notch transplant surgeons don’t hurt for money anywhere.
4-It’s none of the Shelby County Commission’s business what the State (via the University of Tennessee) sold it’s property for.
5-It’s an election year and a collection of bozos are trying to get their name in the paper instead of doing something worthwhile for their constituents.
Does anyone with a functioning brain cell think that a dying billionaire would quibble or worry over a half million dollars?