Pundits react to Steve Jobs' medical leave announcement

Jordan Golson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:50:23 -0500

By far the biggest tech story of the day is Apple's announcement that CEO Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave of absence for at least five months. Here are a few reactions from around the tech punditsphere to Steve Jobs' leave of absence from Apple:

"[Apple's board of directors'] track record on corporate governance and disclosure has been less than stellar. I think the market and most Apple observers are expecting it to be worse than they're telling us... The board has done a really bad job of being full and honest with the investing public. They didn't handle the disclosure of the cancer in the first place very well. We didn't find out in a timely fashion about the surgery. Two weeks ago when, they announced he wouldn't be at Macworld again, they said nothing was wrong. Now he's taking a leave of absence. These are not really great disclosures and it sets a bad precedent. It creates more fear about the stock." -- Mark Veverka, Barron's West Coast Editor, on the Fox Business Network

"Somewhere, right now, a plaintiff lawyer is preparing to file a lawsuit against Apple on behalf of shareholders who will claim they were deceived by the company's statements about the health of chief executive Steve Jobs... Unless Jobs' health suddenly deteriorated in the last week, Jobs misled investors when he addressed the issue [last week]. Perhaps he was himself misinformed. Nonetheless, issuing misleading statements to shareholders will certainly open Apple to potential shareholder liability." -- John Carney, Apple Shareholders Suits Coming In 10, 9, 8, 7..., Clusterstock

"Apple will gradually lose its lead -- especially if it doesn't quickly put in place a plan to move forward without Steve. Pundits will argue all day that Apple is more important than Steve Jobs. Fine. But Steve Jobs is Apple. He might not write code or sit in chip fabs. But he makes the big, important decisions that make Apple products Apple Products. New decision-makers will make choices Steve wouldn't make. Talent will leave. Etc. It's always possible that... Apple could be better without steve. But we... are sticking with the idea that Apple without Steve is not as good as Apple with Steve." -- Dan Frommer, Apple Without Jobs: Fine For Now, But..., Silicon Alley Insider

"Apple has the best team, the best distribution, the best supply chain, the best management in the business... Apple is more than just Steve Jobs. Now you're about to find out just how much more... Apple is fine and we'll all buy the next big thing that they do no matter who brings it to us... That won't go away because Steve isn't at the helm anymore." -- Robert Scoble, You are an idiot if you sell your Apple stock tomorrow, Scobleizer

"[Steve Jobs] is widely regarded to be the singular heart and soul of Apple, despite the fact that he has surrounded himself with a highly talented crew of engineers and designers that he regularly -- and, it appears, sincerely -- thanks at every product-announcement presentation... Should that leave become permanent... we'll learn more about the company's resilience, measured both by investors' confidence and by the ability of the Apple team to continue innovating in a Jobs-less era." -- Rik Myslewski, Steve Jobs takes medical leave from Apple to focus on health, The Register