February 24, 2009 by Jay Smith
Steve Job’s, Apple’s charismatic CEO, is unlikely to attend this week’s Apple shareholders meeting. Jobs is currently out on a six month medical leave of absence, owing to various health issues. Whilst Apple maintain the departure of Jobs is only temporary, his absence from the shareholders meeting, the first one he’s missed in more than a decade, highlights Apple’s need for a plan if Jobs’ leave has to be extended or even, in the worst case, he has to stand down.
Apple are, thus far remaining quiet on the Jobs front and indeed have been loath to comment on their ailing head for quite some time now. This has been frustrating for the press as well as Apple’s shareholders.
Obviously it’s the shareholders’ ire that will concern them most and their annoyance is considerable. There are likely to be some taxing questions asked at this week’s meeting about the company’s confusing and late disclosure of Jobs’ condition which led to rumours about the CEO. Negative rumours lead to stock price falls and stock price falls lead to disgruntled shareholders.
If I was Steve Jobs, I wouldn’t go either.
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