Steve Jobs health revelation triggers lawsuit speculation

[Stephen Withers]

The news that Steve Jobs' medical condition is "more complex" than previously disclosed has led to speculation that we will see class actions brought against Apple or its directors.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs recently announced that he will take a medical leave of absence until the middle of the year. He had previously downplayed concerns about his health following surgery for pancreatic cancer in mid 2004.

Apple's share price fell abruptly on the news, but by close of trade on Thursday had recovered to $US83.38 - fairly close to where it would have been if the trend of the previous four trading days had continued.

So there is an argument to be made that the only people hurt by the news were those that panicked and dumped their shares.

Justified or not, there is a section of the investment community (and of Apple's customer base, for that matter) that sees Jobs' presence at the helm as being crucial to the company's success.

It may well be that he can take credit for turning the company around, but that doesn't mean he's the only person that can run Apple successfully - just that he's done a better job of it than the executives who were in charge during Jobs' 'wilderness years.'

Anyway, it seems likely that someone will bring legal action claiming that Apple or its directors failure to keep the market fully informed about Jobs' health constituted a material misstatement.

What are the chances of success? Please read on.



Article Link at http://www.itwire.com/content/view/22696/1151/

[OzOle]

Just how petty can they get?
And why should Steve Jobs have to make his detailed health concerns public? Haven't they got a Privacy Act in the U.S.?
Apple is a great, innovative company with great products, surely they will continue that way even if Steve Jobs would decide to leave the helm permanently.
I wish Steve Jobs a speedy recovery!
All this because of people's greed!
Who was the twit that said that greed is good?

[M@rk]

Greed at work... if Jobs medical results had had a possibility of being something more serious than was showing up on initial tests, then announcing speculative "what ifs" could have dropped the shares just the same... and the same disgruntled peoples would be complaining about their 'investment' going South. Let the guy have some recovery time! I am sure there are a few others at Apple that actually do work there and can follow some company plans and directives already set in place to cater for the next 3 years and various products.

[frenziesoldier]

[quote="OzOle"]Who was the twit that said that greed is good?[/quote]

Some people would say that apple's current stratergy for pricing and marketing is greedy. To look at the mechanical specs of other laptops and computers compaired to apples would suggest they are greedy. Also their attempts at shutting down people that wish to expand their brand image could be put up against Microsoft and other major sofware/hardware companies.

As for Job's health I do wish him the best in his recovery. But I belive that if apple wish to survive out of their niche market that could be pissed off at the slightest misjudgment by a new management team, they need to be able to expand their operating system to be able to run on more that just controlled hardware. Controlling a hardware platform and software does provide increased benefits because of what can be expected, but this in turn alienates potenial tinkers from upgrading their computer. I will admit that I am a tinker myself, but having such a locked down platform makes it feel way to restricted and makes me feel less inclined to look at their platform again. I do have a mackbook pro notebook and have OSX 10.5, Vista and Ubuntu running on the same notebook, but if I ever wanted to change the hardware on a desktop I would be heavily restricted to just hard drive and RAM upgrades. I would prefer to do more with my computer than just use software. This is the reason I will always stick to Windows for my desktop operating system and prefer to put my own computer together.

I do hope that apple can see this opportunity for expansion some day. I do like their interface and controls but so far I will be limiting my experience to laptop operation and not desktop replacement.

[OzOle]

@frenziesoldier

I am glad to read your expressions of enthusiasm, however, have you thought about what you just wrote?

You wrote: "I would prefer to do more with my computer than just use software. This is the reason I will always stick to Windows for my desktop operating system and prefer to put my own computer together."

Question: How will you do more than just use software?
Without software your PC or laptop is nothing more than a lump of electronic paper weight! You can do nothing, nil, nada, zilch without software, UNLESS of course, you are perhaps thinking of writing your own operating system from scratch in machine language (do you even know what I am talking about?).

And if you want restriction as to what you can do with your PC then by all means stick with your wonderful Microsoft Windows Vista, no doubt that will give you much satisfaction.

And for your information I am NOT an Apple user and neither am I a Microsoft user. I use something that gives me total freedom: Linux!

Enjoy your computer.

[Guest]

Steve Jobs is the "lifeblood" of Apple. They were on the ropes until he returned and made the team crank out the iPod/IPhone. I bought the stock based on his genius -- lying about his health is fraud in my book.