Come on Paradox! According to Forbes:
NEW YORK - In just the last two years, we have added an astonishing 215 new names to the ranks of the world's billionaires. In 2003 we found 476 billionaires. Today it's a record 691. Their aggregate net worth has grown from $1.4 trillion to $2.2 trillion. The average net worth has also jumped, from $2.9 billion to $3.2 billion.
If little Stevie Wondrous is to keep up with the big boys, he'd have to work a number of such deals. He's a genius, dontcha know? Why, he'll never catch up to Billy Gates, his old rival, if downers like you have your way! America is the land of opportunity, after all. /snark
Posted by DeminNewJ at December 28, 2006 08:17 AMAbsolutely nothing Jobs does surprises me. Let's see, he got his girlfriend pregnant, but refused to admit it was his daughter, even after getting his own DNA test done. He left both with no money while he raked in tens of millions. He screwed Apple co-founder, chief engineer and closest friend Steve Wozniak, ripped of his graphical interface from Xerox, and screwed hundreds of Apple and NeXT employees. He even went to work for Gates when he lost his fortune!
The jerk is a bastard, plain and simple.
If you want to see anything comparable to the hard-core wingnuts from the Republican side, then watch the diehard Mac addict cultists. They'll defend Jobs no matter what, because he is their god against the evil Microsoft.
You get the feeling watching Jobs over the years that he's capable of anything. And now we know.
Trying to find an honest executive in America is like trying to find a 12-year old virgin in the Ozarks.
Posted by Alex at December 28, 2006 08:42 AMThe question these days is why anyone would want to own stock in any company, knowing the chances are better than average that their investment could vanish based on this thing or that thing.
Stocks these days are as risky as going to the gambling boat.
Posted by Alex at December 28, 2006 08:50 AMParadox,
The article does not accuse Jobs of lying and participating in the crime. Of course, if he did, he deserves to be held accountable as the law requires.
According to the article you linked to:
"Jobs gave up the options in question from 2001 without ever exercising them, which means he didn't realize a financial gain from them."
I think it's fine to point out that he only gave this up after the news came out, but the $455M number is incorrect.
I disagree with your notion that it's time to outlaw stock options. Criminal behavior by executives shouldn't result in the penalization of rank-and-file employees. Options are often an important means of wealth-sharing and ownership.
(Disclosure: I have received options as an employee - although nothing remotely close to what executives receive).
Over the years I've acquired (legitimately I might add) about 53 shares of Apple stock. This pisses me off immensely. Backdating options screws over little guys like me and reinforces the perception (and probably reality) that it's a rigged game. Grrrrr.
Posted by weinerdog43 at December 28, 2006 09:19 AMThis news just makes me chuckle a little harder when I boot OSX on my $200 home-built Intel box.
Posted by Hedeet at December 28, 2006 09:28 AMHe might say:
"I do not recall..." or
" I have no recollection" or
" Its time to move on and put this behind US"
Posted by Richard at December 28, 2006 09:56 AMIs Jobs a friend of Bush, or Cheney? Just asking.
Posted by jra at December 28, 2006 10:02 AM....let's not throw the baby out with the bath water....many conpanies would not be able to compete with the big-guys without stock options....let's prosecute the offenders not further punish the rank and file.
Posted by Goyo at December 28, 2006 10:04 AMSad? Sad? What a peculiar reaction. Angry, perhaps but "sad?" How odd.
I fail to see what's sad about it. Corporate America has been and continues to be awash with thieves and crooks.
Dennis W. Bakke, Robert Pittman, Dennis Kozlowski, Bernard Ebbers and Kenneth Lay to name but a few.
Power Titans such as those I mentioned believe the rules don't apply to them. Nothing new here.
Posted by Christopher at December 28, 2006 10:23 AMApple has typically been left-leaning and had/has Al Gore on their board.
As far as stock options, take em away from executives and leave em with the rank-and-file. Give the executives and management straight salary and profit sharing. Then wait and see how long it takes em to poison that.
I'm still not clear how those options were carried through without the normal checks and balances in place. And if the investigation cleared Jobs, then how did they reconcile the falsified reports without punishment.
Booting OSX on a $200 intel. Sounds like a great thing. ;)
Posted by Alex at December 28, 2006 11:16 AMBoomers will be the death of the republic. This deranged greed was an anathema to the old school World War 2 and Korean War era ceo's who lived more modest lives and believed in stewardship.
This new run of generic greed hogs are obsessed with stats and want to hog these fiscal abstractions as if they were top sports types hitting the most home runs.
If you think about it, what all can anyone do with these mega millions beyond any lifetime's worth of the most absurd luxury lap conspicuous consumption?
Eventually they'll grow old and die and with luck, we'll see a wiser younger bunch tempered by the hardship we will soon see as this greed rampage implodes and triggers some new version of the great depression.
Posted by Chris Rich at December 28, 2006 12:20 PM"...then watch the diehard Mac addict cultists. They'll defend Jobs no matter what, because he is their god against the evil Microsoft."
I got the unholy shit beat out of me over at The Daily Kos from this, where I cross-posted it. Sorry I haven't commented earlier, I was futilely over there trying to defend the work.
Many are in total denial about it, they refuse to accept any of it. I knew those people were loyal but damn that startled me.
Steve Jobs said he was aware his options were back-dated but not that it would have any accounting implications. The man is a god damn liar, of course any CEO would know the fudiciary implications of his own options! Why do people assume they can say anything and that we'll just believe them? Jesus Christ.
Jobs never cashed in on the 01 grant because he'd been caught. Just 20 months before he was granted 20 million shares! He went underwater and records were falsified to get his options where he wanted them. Apple is a lying, crooked company.
That's it for this today, I don't mean to cut you off, eriposte, it's just enough.
Posted by paradox at December 28, 2006 12:58 PMAt the end 2000 Jobs was given an option grant of twenty…million…shares at $43.59.
Of course, in the intervening 6 years, Jobs's leadership caused Apple's stock to rise to about 90 (it's at about 80 today, amid options-related fears). Those shareholders may well be ticked with Jobs's shenanigans, but they know that their own shares in Apple would've almost certainly been worth less than that with a different CEO.
Is Jobs a scumbag, siphoning off the success of the company he leads? Yes. That company and its shareholders would be foolish to dump him, though.
Posted by dj moonbat at December 28, 2006 02:18 PMThis post jumps to a number of conclusions and takes a "guilty until proven innocent" attitude. I am disappointed to find it in what is otherwise a well-written and -researched blog.
For less hyperbolic analyses of the facts that are known at the moment, try these:
http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2006/12/27/6409
Posted by Jeff Daigle at December 28, 2006 02:21 PM
Is that your opinion of CEO leadership? Well, is it?.
Sure as hell is my opinion of CEO leadership and nonelected boards. I'm trying to think of any group of persons who are more crooked. Only politicians being spoonfed lobbyest dollars comes to mind.
Accepting a predated option, whether exercised or not, shows intent. It's also super duper illegal and shows a culture of corruption is operating within Apple. The CEO is responsible, period. Think Enron and Ken Lay. And this reminds me of a joke:
Steve Jobs goes to prison. He is shown to his cell and meets his cellmate. 6'8" tall, 400lbs, solid muscle...thick Middle Eastern accent (that's just to scare the republi-con children). The cellmate says, "Pleased to meet you. Do you want to be the husband, or do you want to be the wife?" Jobs replies, "If it's all the same to you, I'll be the husband." "Good!" says his cellmate, "Get over here and fellate your wife's penis."
Options to employees? No real problem. Options to management and executives? Big problem. They should be disallowed as part of executive compensation. That's what the huge salaries and bonuses are for.
Posted by phidipides at December 28, 2006 04:57 PMI'm an Apple shareholder and I'm very happy with the enormous value Jobs's leadership has given the company. Of course, I don't support any stock options shenanigans -- I really don't understand why, if you're going to give options to an exec, you wouldn't have the board approve them. After all, in this age, it's not as if boards of major companies have been shy about handing the whole farm over to the CEOs.
I think you're way off base on the NeXt claim, Paradox -- he developed the OS X system over at NExT (where, if he swiped the interface from Xerox, I'm surprised that he hasn't been sued -- and he hasn't), and then agreed to come on board Apple if Apple basically bought NeXt (which they did), improving both the Mac, Apple's financial health, and improving the Next corporation, which was entirely broke at the time of the sale. Everybody gained.
I would hate for anything to stop Jobs from continuing to lead the company -- the value of my stock depends on it (not to mention the great products that Apple puts out -- that even trickle down to those Microsoft users).
And Apple is a very big supporter of the Dems, and so is Jobs.
Posted by Tom Burka at December 28, 2006 05:10 PMhe developed the OS X system over at NExT (where, if he swiped the interface from Xerox, I'm surprised that he hasn't been sued -- and he hasn't)
It's well-nigh impossible to believe, but Xerox had virtually no patents on the innovations that Jobs subsumed into Macintosh and NeXT.
Like Unix (developed at Bell Labs), the Xerox Parc stuff was just experimentation, never intended for external sales. We would all live in a much poorer technological world today if those companies had taken proper care of their intellectual property.
Posted by dj moonbat at December 28, 2006 05:33 PMHopefully Paradox has not shot his wad of bile and saved some for Dell and Microsoft which also are involved in option acrobatics.
That little opinionated rant was something I would expect from LGF, not the Left Coaster.
Posted by Optimist at December 28, 2006 05:52 PMDell's "E" reminds me of the Enron "E".
What make Jobs great is what also what causes the problems. It's the same CEO/me first/I'm a rock star mentality that causes the problems.
None of the US CEOs or executives are worth what they're paid.
But, all that said. Apple does make great products. Just not worth the $455,625,000 in value of the stock options.
Posted by Alex at December 28, 2006 06:13 PMAnd Apple is a very big supporter of the Dems, and so is Jobs.
Which makes me wonder why, with all the corporate shenanigans going on right now, this is the one making the headlines.
Posted by iamcoyote at December 28, 2006 06:29 PMTom Burka, then I guess you would not mind if Apple finally saw fit to declare a dividend. After all, MS finally did. Jobs may be a good CEO, but if has back dated options, he is a crook as is the Board that approved any backdating. See philipedes above.
Posted by weinerdog43 at December 28, 2006 06:30 PMWe would all live in a much poorer technological world today if those companies had taken proper care of their intellectual property.
*chuckles*
But then how would the IP lawyers make a living? :) Think of the poor lawyers, dammit!
Posted by idiosynchronic at December 30, 2006 08:09 AM