Steve Jobs
Full category list for displayed posts: Apple, News, Steve Jobs
10:02 am, June 29th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Steve Jobs is back in charge at Apple HQ after a liver transplant. CC-licensed photo by Andy.
Steve Jobs is officially back at work after six-month’s medical leave, an Apple spokesperson just told Bloomberg reporter Connie Guglielmo in a phone interview.
“Steve is back to work,” said Apple spokesman Steve Dowling on Monday. “We are very glad to have him back.”
Jobs is working at Apple a few days a week and working from home the remainder of the time, Dowling added. Jobs reportedly returned to work last week, but Monday’s statement is Apple’s first official word.
Jobs took six month’s medical leave in January, promising to return by the end of June. Monday is June 29. During his absence, Jobs had a liver transplant in Memphis, TN.
LINK.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 4 Comments »
5:10 pm, June 24th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Warren Buffett has criticized Apple for keeping Steve Jobs's liver transplant a secret. Illustration by MacBlogz.
Joining other experts, billionaire investor Warren Buffet says Apple might have violated the law by keeping quiet about Steve Jobs’s liver transplant.
The head of Berkshire Hathaway said Jobs’s life-saving operation was a “material fact” that Apple was legally obliged to report to investors. The Securities and Exchange commission requires public companies to report material facts to shareholders. Failure to do so is in breach of the law.
“It’s a material fact,” said Buffett on CNBC on Wednesday. “Whether he is facing serious surgery or not is a material fact. Whether I’m facing serious surgery is a material fact. Whether (General Electric CEO) Jeff Immelt is, I mean, so I think that’s important to get out. They’re going to find out about it anyway so I don’t see a big privacy issue or anything of the sort.”
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 10 Comments »
6:32 pm, June 23rd, 2009, Leander Kahney
Methodist University Hospital in Memphis has confirmed Steve Jobs had a liver transplant
UPDATE: Hospital spokeswoman Ruth Ann Hale declined to add any more information to hospital’s statement. She would not say when the transplant was performed (the Wall Street Journal said about two months ago); how long Steve Jobs had been on the transplant waiting list; nor where the donor organ came from. “We’re not saying anything beyond what it says in the statement,” she said by phone on Tuesday night. It’s safe to assume the donor liver came from a deceased patient — otherwise Jobs wouldn’t be on a waiting list. But the lack of a time frame for the operation is curious. Perhaps it’s to protect the identity of the donor? If the time of the operation is known, maybe it makes it easier to identify potential donors?
Methodist University Hospital in Memphis has confirmed that Steve Jobs had a liver transplant — and the disclosure was made with Jobs’s permission, the hospital says.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the hospital said Jobs was the sickest person on the waiting list at the time the donor organ became available.
The hospital’s statement is likely in response to growing questions about the transplant. On Tuesday morning, the New York Times published a high-profile story asking whether Jobs’s money and power helped him to jump to the front of the queue. “Whenever someone rich and famous receives a transplant, suspicions inevitably arise about whether that person managed to jump to the head of the waiting list and take an organ that might have saved the life of somebody just as desperate but less glamorous,” the paper said.
The hospital’s statement appears to be a flat denial that Jobs received any preferential treatment.
“He received a liver transplant because he was the patient with the highest MELD score (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) of his blood type and, therefore, the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available,” the hospital said.
The hospital said Jobs is doing well.
“Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis.”
Full text of the statement after the jump.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 1 Comment »
8:20 am, June 23rd, 2009, Leander Kahney
Paul Argenti
Apple broke the law by lying about Steve Jobs health, says a top marketing professor.
But whether the Security and Exchange Commission has the “balls” to prosecute is unclear.
Paul Argenti, Professor of Corporate Communication at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, says that Apple’s communications about its CEO’s health violated the SEC’s full disclosure regulations.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 45 Comments »
5:34 pm, June 22nd, 2009, Leander Kahney
Steve Jobs's Mercedes at Apple's HQ in August 2008. Photo by Ranajune.
UPDATE: Reuters reports that Steve Jobs was seen leaving Apple’s campus on Monday. “He was seen leaving the main Apple building in Cupertino, California and getting into a black car alone that was then driven off by men in black suits with ear-pieces,” the news service reported.
CNBC’s Jim Goldman is saying that Steve Jobs returned to work at Apple on Monday.
Employees have seen Jobs around Apple’s campus, Goldman says. “Officials at Apple have yet to respond to multiple phone calls and emails seeking guidance about Jobs and his whereabouts, but employees are doing what Apple PR isn’t, and that’s confirming that he’s here at work,” says Goldman.
The information jibes with this morning’s iPhone 3G S press release,
which quoted Jobs for the first time since he took his medical leave,
implying he’s back in charge.
This is great news - if it’s true. I’d be delighted to see Jobs back in charge at Apple, but trouble is, I’m not sure I trust Goldman. He’s proven as unreliable as Apple’s own PR surrounding Jobs’ illness. Goldman last year said Steve Jobs wasn’t sick, just days before he took sick leave. For this, he was accused by NewsWeek columnist Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve) of being “played and punked” by Apple PR.
So I’m willing to give a prize to the first reader who sends in a picture of Steve Jobs at Apple’s campus or a picture of his car (preferably parked in a handicapped spot).
Yeah, I know, it’s stalkerish. But I’d like to know if Steve Jobs is really back at work, and this is one way of getting to the bottom of it.
BTW, I’ve called and emailed Apple’s PR asking if Jobs is back at work — but I’m not holding my breath.
Show us Steve’s smiling face. Let’s cheer his return to work and good health!
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 9 Comments »
6:22 am, June 22nd, 2009, Lonnie Lazar
“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in his first officially quoted statement for the company since taking a medical leave of absence in January.
Jobs’ comment came in the wake of a news release touting one million iPhone 3G S units sold in its first weekend since being released last Friday. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever,” continued Jobs in the release, which also noted that six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software since it was released last Wednesday.
The statement did not indicate whether or not Jobs would return to work at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA on Monday.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Apple, News, Steve Jobs, iPhone | 4 Comments »
12:18 pm, June 21st, 2009, Leander Kahney
Steve Jobs's private Gulfstream jet on the runway at TK. Photos reproduced with the kind permission of Rich Snyder.
Jobs has blocked the FAA from officially tracking his jet’s flights (a routine request; some simple paperwork with the National Business Aviation Association). But his 15-seater Gulfstream 5 has a distinctive tail number — N2N — that makes it easy for aviation buffs to track its movements on the Internet.
And while it looks like he flew to Memphis on March 23, possibly for a liver transplant — as CNBC claims to have independently confirmed — his jet made many more flights in April.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Leander Kahney in News, Steve Jobs, Top stories | 19 Comments »
12:47 am, June 21st, 2009, Leander Kahney
Could this be Steve Jobs's new mansion in Memphis? Public records suggest it might be.
Could this 7,500 square foot mansion at 36 Morningside Place in Memphis be Steve Jobs’s new mansion?
Jobs has reportedly bought a large residence in Memphis after receiving a liver transplant in March at one of the city’s hospitals.
Forbes reports that Jobs may have bought a mansion in Memphis close to The Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute, a liver transplant center.
A finance reporter, Alexander Haislip, previously at Red Herring magazine, also says that Jobs has bought a mansion.
Read the rest of this post »
Posted by Leander Kahney in News, Steve Jobs | 20 Comments »
10:24 am, June 20th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Steve Jobs has reportedly bought a mansion in Memphis. It’s not this one, but maybe he’s living near Elvis’ Graceland. CC-licensed picture by Pictophile.
Back in April, rumors swirled that Steve Jobs had bought a mansion in a swanky neighborhood of downtown Memphis while he was receiving medical treatment. The rumors didn’t gain much traction — it was just too weird — but now the WSJ says Jobs received a life-saving liver transplant at one of the city’s hospitals.
The rumor about the mansion started with Alexander Haislip, who runs a private equity site, PEHub Blog, citing a “well-connected business person in Memphis.”
Today, Haislip adds some more interesting details. It’s a 7,500 square-foot mansion located at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in a “swank” part of downtown Memphis, Haislip says. Surrounded by old growth trees, the mansion is painted yellow with white trim and a pool in the back.
The mansion, built in 1914, has undergone substantial renovation since it was purchased last month. “I thought the house had flooded and the roof had caved in or something,” one neighborhood resident says. “There was an inordinate number of workers there. There’s been large crews preparing this house for someone.”
Among the renovations? Upgraded security. “Whoever “bought” the house installed video cameras in the trees and there is a security guard in a white jeep,” says another neighborhood resident. “It’s been very secretive.”
Haislip dug into property records hoping to find Steve Jobs on the title, but the new owner is listed as a mysterious LLC, which he says traces back to a Memphis law firm. The lawyer in charge gave him a no comment and the realtor who sold the mansion said she didn’t know who the client was, she dealt only with the lawyers. Haislip spoke to residents and no one has actually seen Jobs, but one claims to have seen his wife, Laurene Powell.
Haislip didn’t name the street, but it may be Morningside Drive, according to a comment in a related Barron’s blog post.
The commenter also says the mansion was bought by LGHC LLC — the name of the mysterious LLC — which he says shares an address with Memphis law firm Burch,Porter & Johnson.
I did some digging myself. The law firm appears to be real, but a search for Morningside Drive in Memphis turns up only Morningside Street, which is definitely NOT a Steve Jobs kind of neighborhood judging by the Street View pictures.
I also searched local tax and property records for Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell and LGHC LLC, as well as several real estate sites and Zillow — turning up nothing.
Meanwhile, CNBC is reporting that it confirmed Jobs’ private Gulstream jet flew from San Jose to Memphis in late March, which fits the WSJ’s transplant timeframe.
Posted by Leander Kahney in News, Steve Jobs | 6 Comments »
10:24 pm, June 19th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Steve Jobs had a liver transplant about two months ago but is making a speedy recovery and will return to Apple in June, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Steve continues to look forward to returning at the end of June, and there’s nothing further to say,” Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton told the Journal.
Jobs had the transplant in Tennessee and may return to work part time, the Journal said.
In January, Bloomberg News reported that Jobs was considering a liver transplant.
Jobs took six months medical leave in January, promising to return to work in June, but many have been pessimistic about his prospects.Jobs lost weight rapidly in 2008.
The Journal said Jobs had the surgery in Tennessee because of the state’s short waiting list — 48 days compared to 306 nationally. A cancer expert told the Journal that Jobs’ pancreatic cancer may have metastasized and spread to his liver, requiring a transplant.
Five-year survival rates for liver-transplants is about 75 percent, the Journal said. The survival rate of slow-growing tumors like Jobs’ — with or without liver surgery — is usually longer than a decade, the expert said.
The Journal said Jobs has been spotted at Apple’s HQ during his leave.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 1 Comment »
4:51 pm, June 10th, 2009, Leander Kahney
CC-licensed picture by Marc Amos
It’s official — Steve Jobs will be back to work as planned at the end of June.
Speaking at WWDC, Apple’s top marketing executive, Phil Schiller, reiterated the company’s line that Jobs will be returning to Apple at the end of this month after six month’s medical leave.
“That’s still our statement,” said Schiller, who is Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.
As one of Apple’s top executives, Schiller’s word is as good as gospel.
It’s not the first time the company has said Jobs will returning to work in June. At Apple’s annual shareholders’ meeting in late February, the company said he planned to return to work this month.
Meanwhile, Jobs has been deeply involved in the company even while on leave.
“These products have been in development for a while, so of course Steve has been very involved in them all along,” said Schiller. “You could say that Steve has stayed on top of some of the key strategic things at Apple throughout [his leave].”
Jobs unexpectedly took medical leave in January, saying his declining health was “more complex” that previously believed. He said at the time he would be returning in June, but his rapid weight loss in 2008 and various conflicting statements about his health has led many to be pessimistic about his prospects of returning to work.
Link: Daily Telegraph.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 1 Comment »
12:35 pm, June 8th, 2009, Leander Kahney
Apple's WWDC '09 at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco. CC-licensed photo by Adam Jackson.
Apple fans are generally pleased with Snow Leopard and the new iPhone 3GS but are disappointed Steve Jobs didn’t make a surprise appearance at WWDC.
“Despite Snow Leopard, OS 3.0 and the new iPhone 3GS, what i really wanted to see was Steve Jobs healthy and onstage,” tweeted AppsAddicts.
“Dammmn, We miss Steve Jobs. This keynote sucked,” said mumph.
Steve Jobs’ absence prompted many to wonder about his health, and whether he would return to Apple at the end of the month as the comapny has indicated. One Apple fan compared Jobs to the elusive Osama Bin Laden.
“Where’s Steve Jobs? Keeping his death a secret like bin Laden?” tweeted brokenalice.
Fans also complained about the lack of a forward-facing camera on the new iPhone, which had been widely rumored, and no iTablet.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Steve Jobs | 1 Comment »
