Why Steve Jobs wasn't obligated to make his health a public matter
Why Steve Jobs wasn't required to make his health condition a public matter
By Yoni Heisler on Fri, 01/16/09 - 3:52am.
When Steve Jobs recently announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from Apple, a number of critics began shouting that Apple and Steve Jobs haven't been completely forthright in regards to his health. Some have even suggested that Apple's board deliberately withheld relevant and material information from the public so as not to affect Apple's stock price. It's important, though, to move beyond the chirping of tech pundits and actually examine the extent of any legal obligations, if any, that Steve Jobs and Apple had to keep the public abreast of his health.
Securities Law doesn't provide an explicit rule requiring executives to reveal their health to the public at large, but an executives health can appropriately become subject to public inquiry if the information would be of interest to a reasonable investor, and if that ailment affects that executive's ability to carry out his/her job duties.
The health of Steve Jobs is clearly of interest to Apple shareholders, but that doesn't mean every time Steve Jobs stubs his toe or gets the flu that Apple needs to issue a press release. In this case, though, the situation is a lot more serious, and Steve Jobs' health condition, whatever it may be, is obviously affecting his ability to run Apple, as evidenced by his decision to take a leave of absence.
Some journalists, however, claim that Steve Jobs and Apple's board of directors privately knew the severity of Jobs' health condition, but purposefully withheld that information from the public for weeks. Some are even speculating that shareholder lawsuits are inevitable as a result. Allegations of misconduct, however, will be tough, if not impossible to prove.
First of all, we have no way of knowing what information Apple's board of directors were privy to, so arguments that the board misled investors are premature at best. More importantly, though Steve Jobs lost a significant amount of weight in a relatively short period of time, there's no evidence to suggest that Jobs knew what was causing his weight loss. In fact, based on the information we have, it seems that even Jobs' doctors weren't able to pin down the cause of his rapid weight loss. In such a scenario, what else could Jobs and Apple executives comment on the matter except to say that everything was fine?
When Steve Jobs first informed the public about his hormonal imbalance, he noted that his weight loss had been a "mystery to me and my doctors." Jobs then goes on to state that after further testing, his doctors "think they found the cause." If the doctors caring for Jobs weren't even able to diagnose his condition, what information could he himself have been able to disclose to the Apple board or to the public? Was he supposed to come out and say, "Hey guys, I realize I've been losing weight but the doctors aren't quite sure why yet"?
Now, one might ask, "But what if the doctors diagnosed him with a hormonal imbalance 9 weeks ago? And what if the board of directors were aware of this? Aren't they under a duty to disclose then?"
Not necessarily.
A duty to disclose would only arise if his condition would materially affect his ability to fulfill his duties as CEO. That said, Jobs noted in his initial letter that "The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward." If we take Jobs at his word, and unless you're a doctor I don't know how you can't, Jobs and Apple's board of directors were under no obligation to keep the public abreast of Jobs' health since it appears that Jobs, and by extension the board, were under the impression that his condition was easily curable and would not affect his ability to function as Apple's CEO.
One week after his initial letter, Jobs wrote that he was going to take a leave of absence from Apple because he learned earlier that same week that his "health-related issues are more complex" than he originally thought. Given how long it took his doctors to initially track down the root cause of his weight loss, it's completely plausible that his health condition was indeed a "moving target", as some have noted.
Yet because Job's condition got worse so quickly, people are accusing Jobs and Apple of some massive and purposeful mis-information campaign intended to fool the public. Unless Jobs lied about what his doctors told him, how could he and Apple's board realistically be held accountable? It's mind boggling that pundits are lambasting Apple and Jobs for not being more forthcoming about his health condition when even the doctors taking care of Jobs weren't able to figure out what the problem was until just recently.
The bottom line is that Steve Jobs loves working at Apple, yet has decided he needs to take some time off to tend to a serious health condition. There is no evidence to suggest that Jobs was ill-equipped to run Apple over the past few weeks, and as such, people should let the man recover in peace.
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- About iOnApple
- Yoni Heisler is a technology writer and Mac nerd who's been using Apple products for well over 18 years. He actively covers a wide variety of Apple topics, from legal news and rumors to current events and even Apple related comedy and history. When not writing about Apple, he enjoys basketball, music, and writing in the third person. Got an idea, comment or suggestions? You can reach him at iOnApple1@gmail.com.
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Amen! Your article is very
Amen! Your article is very well thought out.
You do raise some good
You do raise some good points, though traditionally Steve has always been very very secretive. And while in the past, with those situations it worked well, in this case people are assuming that he is doing what he normally does... keep things under wraps.
It has basically come down to the cult of mac starting to go mainstream. While fans of old would have been fine with that, the normal populace does not know how apple does things, only "they make cool things". So when they see something that doesn't make sense (and really, it doesn't), they question why. Apple has done a bunch of very strange moves lately with the canceling of their show, Jobs actually sharing the stage for once, and then BOOM he takes some time off due to illness. It does look a bit weird.
The Face of Apple
I don't see why investors should get all bent out of shape, due to Mr. Jobs not disclosing his health to the public. He has a private life, just as we all do and I'm sure that he values it no differently than you are I. It's absurd and I agree that he should be left alone to recover.
He values his privacy like
He values his privacy like we do, yes. But you or I are not running a multi-billion dollar corporation with millions of investors financial backing.
They are playing with the shareholders money, plain and simple.
Playing?
It's quite a stretch to say that Apple is playing with the shareholders money. With a statement like that one would assume Apple is not profitable, which currently they are.
If the shareholders do decide to sue, it would be a large mistake as they would be doing nothing more then further devaluing their own assets. If Apple was losing money due to decisions made by Jobs that would be one thing, but thats not the case here.
Complete BS
You're going to tell me, with the BILLIONS that Jobs has and the countless, top-in-their-field physicians, that look after him HONESTLY can't figure out what the problem is? And the best reason they can find for his weight loss was a "hormone deficiency"? Please....
A month ago, before MacWorld, Apple states Jobs will not be giving his keynote because they feel they no longer need
to do the trade show "thing". Then, a day before the keynote, a letter comes out stating he actually is a "a bit" sick but he has a "simple and straightforward" remedy? And now, one week later, his condition is more "complex" and he is stepping down from CEO duties until June?
Like always, Apple is simply hiding the truth to keep stock prices up. Mark my words. There will be suits brought forth. I wish Jobs the best. He's a pioneer and visionary in the tech industry. It took the board a year to release that he had Pancreatic Cancer in 2004, and this case is not different. It may not be cancer this time, but something is "Very" wrong. Jobs knows it. The board knows it. As always, the shareholders and public are left out in the dark to wonder and speculate.
House would figure it out...
House would figure it out... in about an hour
House
I'm sure that if House was diagnosing Steve Jobs then it would be a season ender and it would be be "To Be Continued..."
This alone would make it a two hour treatment.
The only thing that matters.... Get Well Steve...
....
something about physicians
just because Jobs has the $$$ to pay for top-notch docs, doesn't mean they're going to get it right the first time every time...
I have sincere respect for doctors and what they do. But they ain't perfect, and Mr. 'Complete BS' / Anon should know the following...
"doctors PRACTICE medicine" ;-)
and the lawsuits will inevitably be thrown out complete with the judge flipping them the bird. Steve Jobs isn't the President of the United States (renamed iUSA :-) he's the president of a company that has zero debt and great products. He has no obligation to keep investors apprised of his health 24/7. He could have just told them he's taking a leave of absence and left it at that.