Steve Jobs' health worries investors

Wall Street Journal

Published July 22, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.

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Steve Jobs' health is a concern for investors as rumors swirl.

Apple Inc.'s refusal to discuss Chief Executive Steve Jobs's health is worrying investors, causing them to scurry for what information they can get while asking just when an iconic CEO's health becomes material for a company.

During Apple's earnings conference call with analysts on Monday, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer declined to answer an analyst's question about Jobs's health, calling it "a private matter." Apple's demurral raised new concerns among investors, who have been worried about Jobs' health since a 2004 bout with pancreatic cancer.

Their fears flared earlier this year, when Jobs appeared gaunt at a public appearance; the company at the time blamed "a common bug." The fears were stoked anew this week with a report in the New York Post that the CEO is unwell. Now, said one large Apple investor, "everyone's worried."

Apple shares fell as low as $146.53 earlier Tuesday following the company's lackluster outlook for the current quarter. Some analysts suggested that concerns about Jobs' health were also weighing on the stock, which closed at $162.02, down $4.27.

Apple spokeswoman Katie Cotton on Tuesday reiterated that Jobs' health is private.

Jobs' well-being is key information for a company whose success is inextricably linked to its leader. But corporate-governance experts say the laws governing when an executive must reveal his health problems are unclear.

Apple's refusal to offer a reassurance Monday that Jobs is healthy continued a pattern that began in 2004. That year, the company waited nine months to tell shareholders about Jobs' pancreatic cancer, which ended with surgery that the company said at the time "cured" him.

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