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Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

blogs.wsj.com

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Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#31

Post by inovica »

Stock, stock, stock. Thats what most people are talking about. I saddens me that this guy is obviously seriously ill and all that people can first think about is the stock price. Personally I wish him the very best of luck with whatever his medical condition is. Without his input into the world of computing (despite the negatives that he allegedly has) we would live in a different world to the one we now have. He was there from the very beginning of the personal computer revolution and I have a lot of respect for him. Above all though he's a human being and both he and his family must be going through a lot at the moment. My wishes are with them and hope that he recovers.

Oh, and I own Apple stock too

Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#33

Post by jonknee »

bootload wrote: post #27
tptacek wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether you like Murdoch's politics or not, the WSJ is one of the most respected newsgathering organizations in the world. They didn't blow their credibility on a fake memo. This story didn't run on the (partisan) WSJ editorial page. It ran on the front page . It's obviously true.

"... Whether you like Murdoch's politics or not, the WSJ is one of the most respected newsgathering organizations in the world. They didn't blow their credibility on a fake memo. ..." Calm down. I posted the article very early and only the WSJ & CNBC reporting breaking news. No other confirmation. This isn't about politics, it's exercising skepticism until the news is confirmed by a number of sources.

Early or not, when it's a major financial story on the front of the WSJ there isn't a need to exercise skepticism. Or at least skepticism because Murdoch owns them, that's starting to get paranoid.

Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#35

Post by mattmaroon »

swombat wrote: post #21

Cool. So I guess the best bet is to wait till the stock drops artificially tomorrow and then buy buy buy!

Yeah actually. I've got a few put contracts I'm going to dump. I've been betting against Jobs's health for a while. Plan B all along has been to go long after that happened. He's just not as important to that company as the market believes, because no man is that good.

Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#36

Post by jws »

It is now about 30 minutes after this broke, there are 10 articles about it posted to Hacker News.

My take is that it will have a good couple of days of news cycle, but ultimately isn't that important to anyone but Steve Jobs, his family, and friends.[1]

The key of Jobs at Apple is that he demonstrated a "different way". The Scully years were about performing business: perform incremental improvement, manage costs, and earn a return on investment. The return of Jobs was the proposition that the company could [also|instead] succeed by fostering a reputation for quality of user experience and changing the product landscape to make new opportunities[2]. That proposition is now proven, there is a generation of leaders (and lead) in the company that know this and believe it.

They should get along just fine.

What they will lose is the "star power" of Jobs and all the easy copy that media companies could generate based on that. That will hurt, less media coverage is not good, particularly since Apple is going to suffer though a massive salvo of easy FUD articles.

[1] if he has a family, he may just have an antiseptic white ceramic dwelling staffed by obedient Eve clones for all I know.

[2] also, break some eggs if you are making an omelette.

Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#37

Post by davidw »

inovica wrote: post #31

Stock, stock, stock. Thats what most people are talking about. I saddens me that this guy is obviously seriously ill and all that people can first think about is the stock price. Personally I wish him the very best of luck with whatever his medical condition is. Without his input into the world of computing (despite the negatives that he allegedly has) we would live in a different world to the one we now have. He was…

> I saddens me that this guy is obviously seriously ill and all that people can first think about is the stock price.

I don't want to appear callous, but people get sick all the time, and most people don't really notice or care. People notice in this case because Jobs is viewed as being critical to Apple's success, and has a track record of innovation, is a famous, wealthy guy, has affected the lives of millions, etc...

One of the good things about markets is that they can make transactions possible covering a very broad range of actors (see "I, Pencil"), some of whom might even detest each other, were they to meet in person. This, on the other hand, is one of those cases where markets come across as sort of cold and impersonal in a bad way, because the potential loss of millions of dollars has a way of focusing people's attention much more than the illness of some random person. They're two sides of the same coin.

Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#38

Post by otto »

jedc wrote: post #26
tlrobinson wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's certainly not good for Jobs that his health is declining, and may not be good for AAPL in the short term, but it gives Apple the opportunity to prove that Apple != Steve Jobs. If Apple can continue to kick ass for 6 months while he's gone, it indicates that Apple may do just fine once he's gone permanently. Of course, 6 months may not be long enough to really tell. There's also the possibility that he really is…

Completely agree. The truly big test for Apple would really come 12-18 months after Steve's departure, when the product development pipeline matures. If they're able to keep the same "magic" with or without Steve, then it proves that he built Apple's success into their culture.

Historically that has not been the case though. In the short run it probably will not be much of an issue for Apple as there is not a huge shift in management.

Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#39

Post by sabat »

Horrible news. Worse, the SEC is likely to come after him if it turns out (as we all probably think it will) that he's facing another round of cancer treatment. Now he's facing legal action as well, by publicly denying he has cancer.

Re: Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence

#40

Post by tptacek »

bootload wrote: post #27
tptacek wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether you like Murdoch's politics or not, the WSJ is one of the most respected newsgathering organizations in the world. They didn't blow their credibility on a fake memo. This story didn't run on the (partisan) WSJ editorial page. It ran on the front page . It's obviously true.

"... Whether you like Murdoch's politics or not, the WSJ is one of the most respected newsgathering organizations in the world. They didn't blow their credibility on a fake memo. ..." Calm down. I posted the article very early and only the WSJ & CNBC reporting breaking news. No other confirmation. This isn't about politics, it's exercising skepticism until the news is confirmed by a number of sources.

It's one thing to express skepticism and another to advance the argument that one of the most credible news organizations in the world would fake a story because of the influence of Rupert Murdoch. Just clearing that up.
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