Posts Tagged ‘Steve Jobs’

Is Steve Jobs Worth More Than Six Billion Dollars?

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

apples.jpg
credit: ollesvensson

Investing is a lot about trying to predict the future of a company. But what if that future depends on one single person?

  • When Apple’s CEO announced he was taking medical leave earlier this week, AAPL shares suddenly lost a lot of value. Steve Jobs is widely considered to be the secret to Apple’s success.
  • But the next day, the company released an amazing first-quarter earnings report, revealing record profit from the past three months.
  • The question now – without Steve Jobs on the job(s), can Apple continue to be as successful as it is today?

Facts & Figures

  • Apple’s profit this quarter was $6 billion
  • That’s 78% more than the same three months last year
  • The company sold 16.2 million iPhones, 7.33 million iPads, and 4.1 million mac computers
  • This is Jobs’ third medical leave in seven years

Best Quote

“To think of a world without Steve Jobs is a really scary thought because he has had such a major influence on all of our lives whether we know it or not.” – Gene Munster, Analyst at Piper Jaffray (an investment bank)

What do you think?

How would this week’s news that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is taking more medical leave change your decision about whether to invest in Apple?

CEO Of The Decade (According To MarketWatch): Mr. Macintosh

Thursday, December 9th, 2010

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is allegedly a nightmare boss, but that hasn’t stopped him from changing (or taking over) the consumer world.

  • Jobs pioneered touch-screen technology with the iPhone, and triumphantly pulled Apple from the bottom of the pile to the top of the world. He also ran Pixar Animation (Toy Story, Up, Ratatouille) until 2006.
  • But Steve’s prickly personality has been problematic (that’s part of the reason he was forced to leave Apple in 1985), and there are some serious questions about Apple’s corporate compensation and governance practices.
  • The most important question on investors’ minds is this: Can anyone possibly fill Jobs’ “rockstar CEO” shoes when he’s gone?

Facts & Figures

  • $1,000 of Apple stock purchased in 2000 is worth almost $43,000 today
  • Apple has earned $47.7 billion in iPod sales alone
  • Apple is currently valued at $285 billion; Microsoft is $220 billion

Best Quotes

“He is not somebody [who] any one of us would want watching our kids, but, in terms of running the company, he’s excellent.” – Rob Enderle, President, Enderle Group

“The resurrection of Apple is just the most astounding story that’s probably happened in business in at least a decade — you might be able to go further and say it’s a half-century. It’s on par with Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell in terms of its total impact.” – Roger Kay, President of Endpoint Technologies