The SEC should investigate Steve Jobs ' liver

Apple didn't tell the whole truth about its CEO. It said Steve Jobs had a nutritional deficiency. The nutritional deficiency, we now know, was that he needed a new liver. I love my eMac, and I'm a fan of Jobs, not so much because he cofounded Apple as because he returned to the company when it was in trouble and made it great again. One success might have been luck; twice tells us this guy has something special. And it's been clear for years that Jobs is of special importance to Apple. He's more than just the CEO. That's exactly why the fact that he was dying was material to the company's operations and should have been disclosed. The fact that Jobs got a new liver and did not die is excellent news, and I wish him well, but this does not change the fact that Apple concealed something important to its affairs. The Securities & Exchange Commission does not specifically demand intimate medical details on CEOs, but anything material to the value of stock must be reported. For example, it does not specifically demand reporting of fires on company property, but if an oil company has a refinery fire it reports it right away. I'm guessing the SEC will let Apple slide on this one, but even if it does it is important for publicly-traded companies and the chief executives to be reminded that they have certain duties to their shareholders, and if a charismatic leader is on a waiting list for a liver transplant, his company needs to say so. It is emphatically NOT "nobody's business."

Comments

[Angela]

Im just happy he didn't die.

[Tracy]

I am not sure if anyone else saw the article below but I just found it so apropos to cut and paste a portion of it here with you Howard. So the journalism gods have beckoned you too... : )

Keep up the good writing I read your blog every day.

Originally Posted by ZDNET this is a shortened version
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn @ 8:30 am

For daring to steal fire from the Gods, it is said, Prometheus was chained to a rock and sentenced to having his liver pecked out by birds.

Steve Jobs can relate.

Not only did Apple come awfully close to losing Jobs over the last few months, but he will never be truly out of the woods.

The bottom line is that Jobs is very lucky to be alive following a liver transplant. The first successful liver transplant took place in 1967, but it did not become common until the 1980s, with the introduction of cyclosporine.

About 6,000 liver transplants are now done each year in the U.S., but the waiting list for organs averages 17,000. Those waiting lists could be reduced as more donors can now survive having part of their liver removed for transplant.

How and why did Jobs jump the queue? He was dying dieing faster than others, the company now admits.

Paul Argenti of Dartmouth’s business school says Apple deserves to face SEC action for lying about failing to disclose Jobs’ condition, which is the outgrowth of his 2004 pancreatic cancer.

I hate to be one of those birds pecking at Prometheus, but I agree.

But a bird’s got to peck where a bird’s got to peck. And if the journalism gods tell you to peck at Prometheus’ liver, that’s what you do.

Dana Blankenhorn

[Nancy Hardewig]

Look up HIPPA. PRIVACY. He absolutely has the same right to privacy as everyone else. Stop thinking like a business person and put yourself in his shoes. Wouldn't you like and don't your deserve the choice? Let me answer that for you...yes.

[Doug]

You've left out a crucial "not" in the fifth paragraph. i.e. "The SEC does not specifically demand..."

[Whoa! Thanks for catching that! It's fixed now. HMD]