Hi Thom.
You had a caller Tuesday that mentioned Steve Jobs.
To support his claim that Jobs is a sociopath, the caller referred to a backdating scandal from years ago.
I'd like to point out that Mr. Jobs was cleared in the investigation, and never exercised those stock options anyway.
This ended up costing him about $10 billion dollars, BTW.
He decided to stay on the straight and narrow, and took a much lesser deal on some restricted stock.
"In October, the company largely exonerated Mr. Jobs over the matter, saying that while he had been “aware” of the backdating “in a few instances,” he “did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16373057/
Basically the stock options were issued without a full meeting of the compensation committee and the dates were fudged. Somebody got fired for screwing up, and the matter is closed.
Let's please remember Steve Jobs gets paid $1 per year. And the occasional free jet.
If he manages his company well, he can profit from stock options. If he doesn't, he could actually lose money.
I think all CEOs should be paid this way. No more running the company into the ground, getting a government bailout, and collecting a bonus for failure.
It would be nice if you mentioned this on your show to set the record straight.
Comments
I don't see declining to exercise Illegal options, AFTER THEY WERE MADE PUBLIC, as evidence of an honorable man.
Taking a page from the Blue Wall doesn't impress me either.
I missed the part where he was so outraged when he heard about the first instance of back-dating that he fired everyone associated with having done so and made sure everyone knew that would be the consequences for any in the future who might even consider cheating in such a way.
Oh, and where are the bulk of their products manufactured these days?
"I don't see declining to exercise Illegal options, AFTER THEY WERE MADE PUBLIC, as evidence of an honorable man."
I do. Jobs didn't create the stock options on a photocopier, they were issued to him.
Turns out somebody was screwing up. Options have to be approved by the Compensation Committee first.
IF he'd jumped at the chance and used it he would have made over $10 billion dollars.
Once he was apprised there was a problem he turned them in.
Try to remember he's not an accountant, he's an entrepreneur. Bookkeeping isn't his job at Apple.
"Taking a page from the Blue Wall doesn't impress me either."
I could care less. There were three articles I could have quoted from, I just picked one.
"fired everyone associated with having done so and made sure everyone knew that would be the consequences"
Firing people isn't his job either. Apple's internal investigation rooted out the problem, and some people got canned.
There were 160 companies at the time with the same problem. Apple had to deal with it or the SEC would have done it for them.
"Oh, and where are the bulk of their products manufactured these days?"
The same place the bulk of all products are manufactured. Although that has nothing at all to do with the subject under discussion.
I Have A Dream.
I dream that Apple will take some of their $46 billion cash hoard and build super-modern iPad assembly plants in America. And Americans will realize that buying products made in America is a great thing, and start a trend.
Politicians will jump on the bandwagon and institute tariffs on cheap foreign products, and manufacturers will have to adapt by building assembly plants here.
Modern factories are mostly CNC and robotics, not sweatshops.
The higher cost of employing Americans as compared to Chinese serfs makes little difference compared to the output of a CNC machine.
Thanks for post about the options. The options were swapped for stock of lesser value (2003) before the story broke (2006). Here is a less friendly take from Forbes: Steve Jobs: Nobody Loves Me. about his deposition to the SEC.
Steve Jobs ain't no saint but he sure ain't no Blankfein or Blankenship either...
"Less Friendly".
A comment worthy of Douglas Adams himself, much like his "Mostly Harmless" quote.
Yikes.
One comment at the end of the article verged into foaming at the mouth.