Link to Full CNet News.com article
Anyone with a genuine ounce of concern for Steve Jobs’ health should remember the golden rule of medicine: first, do no harm.
Presumably carrying the torch for concerned Apple investors, Henry Blodget of Silicon Alley Insider has apparently decided to make it his personal mission this summer to shame Apple into revealing whether or not Jobs’ pancreatic cancer has returned, aided and abetted by timely “hedge fund sources” from The New York Post who claim that Jobs is scaring business associates with his appearance and this despicable throw-away thought from CNET Blog Network contributor Matt Asay suggesting–without a shred of evidence–that the launch issues with MobileMe and the iPhone 3G might be the result of poor oversight from Jobs due to his health.
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Crossing_the_line_on_Steve_Jobs_health’; Just for a moment, put aside the nonsensical notion that the day-to-day performance of a 20,000-person company is based entirely on the health of one man. Blodget and those openly speculating about Jobs’ health offer no support for their viewpoint other than his appearance and the fact that he once had cancer.
There are indeed real issues for Apple to consider about Jobs’ health and what constitutes material disclosure to investors. But they’ve been covered before: back in 2006 when the same rumors about Jobs’ health made the rounds, and last year when an article in Fortune revealed that Apple waited nine months to disclose that Jobs had been diagnosed with cancer back in 2003.
To repeat, there is no universal standard for how companies are expected to disclose the health issues of their executive officers, the way there are standards for how companies are required to disclose material financial information.
Corporate-governance experts generally agree that a company’s board of directors has the responsibility to determine whether the health of its CEO affecting his or her ability to run the company. Likewise, the CEO has a responsibility to be honest and up-front with the board of directors over the true state of their health.
Apple was forced to address the issue during Monday’s conference call with a statement that will unfortunately do little to dampen the speculation. CFO Peter Oppenheimer read this statement during the call: “Steve loves Apple. He serves as CEO at the pleasure of the board, and he has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter.”
That wasn’t enough for Blodget, who argued, “from a shareholder perspective, the ‘private matter’ response is simply unacceptable.” And later, in the comments attached to his post, he suggests: “I hate to be even more morbid, but I tend to agree with the assessment above: the ‘private matter’ statement makes it seem more likely that he’s seriously sick.”
It’s really not any of our business if Steve Jobs is sick, or if Bill Gates would be sick. It is a private matter that is sensitive not only to the person that might be sick, but to the company that he or she runs. Really, asking about it is a really bullshit thing to do, and speculation, like the article says, is like celebrity tabloids gabbing their pampered heads off. Apple already said that he had a flu before the keynote, and if you’ve ever even had one, you know it takes about a week, or even two days for you to get close to when you didn’t have it.
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