Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010
 |  Follow Newser on Twitter   Friend Newser on Facebook   Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds   Subscribe to Newser emails Newsletters


0

Steve Jobs: Brilliant Tyrant

Apple's mercurial CEO creates a risky rollercoaster ride for shareholders

Share

(Newser) – Steve Jobs is an undisputed Silicon Valley superstar, but his genius has a price, Fortune reports. Jobs is a risk-taking, short-tempered tyrant, and those foibles make Apple a potential rollercoaster for investors. Jobs threatened the company—and his own freedom—in two separate backdating scandals, and, reports the magazine, risked his own life by long avoiding treatment for his pancreatic cancer.

For Apple, a risk to Jobs’ life is also a risk to the stock price. An analyst once predicted that if Jobs went to jail in the backdating scandal, shares would instantly drop 20%. Jobs is also tough to work for. “He made people feel terrible; he made people cry,” said one writer who covered Jobs. “But he was almost always right.”

Apple CEO Steve Jobs talks about the price and availability of the new MacBook Air during his keynote at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. The super-slim new laptop is less than an inch thick and turns on the moment it's opened. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs talks about the price and availability of the new MacBook Air during his keynote at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. The super-slim new laptop is...   (Associated Press)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures during MacWorld conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2008. Wall Street interpreted the Cupertino-based company's guidance for the current quarter, released after the market closed Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008 as a sign that weakening consumer spending will hurt Apple in 2008 and that even...
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures during MacWorld conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2008. Wall Street interpreted the Cupertino-based company's guidance for the current quarter, released after...   (Associated Press)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures during his keynote address at the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2008. Apple Inc. is scheduled to report first-quarter financial results after the market closes Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures during his keynote address at the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2008. Apple Inc. is scheduled to report first-quarter financial results after the...   (Associated Press)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures during his keynote speech at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs gestures during his keynote speech at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)   (Associated Press)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the MacBook Air after his keynote at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. The super-slim new laptop is less than an inch thick and turns on the moment it's opened. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the MacBook Air after his keynote at the MacWorld Conference in San Francisco, Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. The super-slim new laptop is less than an inch thick and turns on...   (Associated Press)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
2.9.10
It’s the Sex, Stupid   
2.8.10
For Me, Palin Scores
0 comments
VIEWING:
 
LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

24 Stories

 Disney Reinventing Stores 
 as 'Imagination Parks' 

Apple's expertise will help transform shopping into entertainment

Oct 13, 09 1:25 AM CDT

Disney Reinventing Stores as 'Imagination Parks'

Apple's expertise will help transform shopping into entertainment

(Newser) - Disney has unveiled ambitious plans to bring the theme park to the shopping mall by turning its network of stores into interactive "Imagination Parks." The overhaul—designed using the expertise of Steve Jobs and his Apple Stores team—will cost some $1 million per store and focus... More »

Back at Work, Jobs Zeroes In on New Apple 'Tablet'

Liver transplant has not diminished CEO's attention to detail

Aug 25, 09 1:23 AM CDT

Back at Work, Jobs Zeroes In on New Apple 'Tablet'

Liver transplant has not diminished CEO's attention to detail

(Newser) - Just months after a liver transplant, Steve Jobs is back at Apple focusing his powerful micro-managerial style on development of a new tablet computer, the Wall Street Journal reports. Jobs’ close involvement with the tablet device signals that it will likely be a major product for Apple. During the development... More »

 Apple: Jobs 
 Is Back, 
 Part-Time 

Jun 29, 09 1:13 PM CDT

Apple: Jobs Is Back, Part-Time

(AP) - Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs is back at work after a five-and-a-half-month medical leave, during which he received a liver transplant. Jobs, 54, is working from Apple's Cupertino, Calif., headquarters "a few days a week" and working from home the remaining days, an Apple spokesman said today. More »

24 Stories


Jobs hid cancer diagnosis
CNET

Apple wins most admired company
CNN

Jobs laughs off shareholder vote on executive wages
Guardian (UK)

Giving back to shareholders not Jobs' style
MarketWatch

 
Steve Jobs • CEO • shareholders • Apple • Pixar • pancreatic cancer • stock option backdating • corporate governance • backdating scandal

from our news partners

Please wait, content is loading
Please wait, content is loading

Just For Laughs

Loading...