Buffet says Apple should disclose more about Jobs health
Even financier Warren Buffet thinks that Apple should be telling the investing public more about the health of Steve Jobs, especially something as critical as an organ transplant.
Buffet joins a chorus of others that have said that the Cupertino electronics giant was being too secretive about Jobs health, according to a Bloomberg blog. Of course, there is a a division of opinion on this among even people that are experts in fields like corporate governance and law. On the one hand, Jobs has a right to privacy, at least as long as he stays in the private realm. But a number of experts in these fields have begun to disagree, saying that Apple is a public company and that investors have a right to know if a critical employee is having health issues.
In an interview with CNBC Wednesday, Buffet, who could be seen as a person in a similar situation to Jobs, had the following to say about the controversy:
If I have any serious illness, or something coming up of an important nature, an operation or anything like that, I think the thing to do is just tell the American, the Berkshire shareholders about it. I work for ‘em. Some people might think I’m important to the company. Certainly Steve Jobs is important to Apple. So it’s a material fact. 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.
Buffets continued use of the term “material fact” seems to indicate that Apple, in at least his opinion, may be breaking the law by not disclosing the condition of it’s CEO, in that their silence may actually be concealing information that the investing public needs to make an informed decision. And Buffet is correct in that a “material fact” is considered under law as anything that a reasonable investor would want to know when making an investment decision, and that companies are required to disclose such material information in a timely manner.
It is not difficult to see that both Jobs and Apple have a vested interest in the CEO’s health. It is also not difficult to see that investors, if they feel that Jobs is of critical importance to Apple’s future, have a right to know whether or not Jobs will be able to report for work again. Jobs grandstanding behavior has thrust him into the public limelight and he has ceded many of his privacy rights. Whether he is as important to Apple as he makes himself out to be has become immaterial. The investing public believes that he is, and he and Apple both therefore have an obligation to publicly and quickly announce changes in his ability to perform.
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June 26th, 2009
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