Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, who has survived a rare pancreatic cancer, is taking a medical leave of absence from the company almost exactly two years after he took a similar one, during which he received a liver transplant.
The news was announced when US stock markets were closed for a public holiday, almost certainly saving the company's stock from a precipitous fall. In after-hours trading in Frankfurt on Monday it fell $22, or 9%. When Jobs took a similar leave of absence in 2009, the stock was briefly suspended after falling 10% on the US market.
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Apple's remaining executives are sure to face a grilling on Wednesday night when announce the company's quarterly results – though those are expected to report booming numbers from its Christmas quarter, with its iPhone and iPad products, as well as its Macintosh computers, all forecast to have sold well.
The the company's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, who has been at the company since March 1998, will take over the day-to-day operations of the company – though in an email to staff Jobs said that he will "continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company". He added: "I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy."
Apple executives in Europe declined to provide any further detail on the reason for Jobs's absence or its expected length.
Many investors and analysts see Apple as Jobs's creation – and him as the engine of its progress. He is cited as the person through whom final design decisions flow, and in whom the "DNA" of the company resides. Every new product that comes out of Apple has Jobs's fingerprints on it – usually literally. In March 2010, Barron's attempted to estimate Jobs's value to Apple, and came up with a figure of $25bn – though that will be now be substantially higher.
Jobs was diagnosed with islet cell neuroendocrine cancer of the pancreas in 2004 – a rare, and treatable form of the disease. After some delay, he was treated in summer 2004 and seemed to make a full recovery. But in January 2009 he took medical leave, and in April 2009 received a liver transplant.
But Professor John Neoptolemos, a pancreatic cancer specialist from Liverpool University, said on Monday night that for most patients in those circumstances a liver transplant is a mistake, because it requires the use of immunosuppressant drugs to prevent tissue rejection – and that can in turn allow the cancer to return in the transplanted liver and other parts of the body. There are treatments available, including radiotherapy and new drugs produced by Pfizer, which he said "should help stabilise" a patient in that situation.
Professor Neoptolemos emphasised that he has not seen any of Jobs's medical details, and that the medical literature is unclear about survival rates following liver transplants in the wake of islet cell cancer.
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During Jobs's absence, Apple will be run by Tim Cook, his chief operating officer, who ran the company in 2009 while Jobs was away for six months due to the transplant.
Carolina Milanesi, vice-president of mobile devices for the research company Gartner, said that Jobs's absence need not mean the end of Apple. "The timing of the announcement [when markets were closed] shows that timing is part of being good at your job. I think that this time around, compared to 2009, people know that Tim Cook can do a good job. As a consumer, I don't care who's running the company – I just care about the products I can buy."
She added: "It's true that Jobs is the captain of the ship. And if you lose the captain for a period, then you are lost for a while. But then there are other people who can steer the ship to a safe harbour."
Apple has firmly resisted attempts to set out how it will find a chief executive to succeed Jobs. In a regulatory filing earlier this month setting out plans for its shareholders' meeting on 23 February, the directors recommend voting "against the shareholder proposal entitled 'Amend the company's corporate governance guidelines to adopt and disclose a written CEO succession planning policy'".
That recommendation will have a particular poignancy at the meeting next month – and may even find shareholders abruptly seeking clarification on precisely those lines.
The signoff in the email sent to all employees contrasts with the wording of his 2009 email, when Jobs signed off saying that he would "look forward to seeing you all this summer". He returned in June. This one is more open-ended.
вторник, 18 января 2011 г.
вторник, 11 января 2011 г.
Labour turns up heat on government over City bonuses
Labour today stepped up the pressure on the government over City bonuses as the new chief executive of Barclays, Bob Diamond, stood firm against demands that he give up his potential £8m payout for 2010.
Forcing George Osborne to the House of Commons dispatch box to defend his attempts to crack down on bankers' bonuses, the shadow chancellor, Alan Johnson, said the coalition had gone "from the scent of rose garden to the stench of broken promises" since the election.
"The chancellor, who says we are all in this together, bows to the rich and powerful whilst bearing down on everyone else. His sneering arrogance will not get him out of this one," Johnson said.
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But Osborne criticised Labour for allowing Royal Bank of Scotland a free rein on bonuses in 2010 and insisted that "nothing is off the table" in continuing talks with the banks about lending £200bn to businesses this year and providing more information on pay.
Diamond – who took the helm of Barclays on 1 January – had earlier been asked repeatedly by the Treasury select committee if he would waive his bonus for 2010, as he was forced to do in 2008 and 2009.
He insisted he had not yet been awarded a bonus for 2010 and would decide "with family" whether to accept the payout.
Becoming fractious at times during his first appearance before MPs, he said: "There was a period of remorse and apology for banks and I think that period needs to be over."
Diamond, who spent 14 years running the investment banking arm Barclays Capital before his promotion, repeatedly refused to say he was "grateful" for the taxpayer's support of the banking system – worth £100bn, according to Bank of England estimates.
"We are very grateful for the central banks around the world and the governments around the world for the actions they have taken," he said.
The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, later denounced Diamond as "the poster boy for everything that is wrong about Britain today".
When asked by MPs to defend bankers' pay, Diamond recollected his childhood experiences in Massachusetts, US, where he was the eldest of nine children and raised by parents who were both teachers. "I learned at a very early age that if I wanted a new shirt or bicycle I had to pay for it myself," he said.
He insisted the bank was aware of the hostility it faced from the public over bonuses.
"We have to balance the responsibility we have and the recognition of the environment we operate in," he said. "I don't agree that I can isolate bonuses and assume that it would not have consequences on the rest of the business.
"I wish I could isolate bonuses and say I'm going to have a really good Barclays Capital and I'm going to have a really good Barclays retail bank, but I'm just not going to decide at the end of the year not to pay anyone. But it's not that simple."
Diamond's elevation to the top slot has resulted in a dramatic change in his pay deals. As the head of BarCap, his £250,000 salary was bolstered by intricate performance-related pay deals that have brought in almost £70m in the last four years through a combination of cash and shares and have offered him unlimited bonus potential.
But he will receive far less as the Barclays chief executive. His salary has risen to £1.35m, with the possibility of an annual bonus equal to 2.5 times that amount, and long-term share-related deals equal to five times his salary.
Diamond played down suggestions that the bank might move out of London and flatly denied that he been asked to show restraint on bonuses.
The chancellor declined an offer from the Labour benches to condemn Diamond's claim that it was time for bankers to stop apologising. Osborne said: "The apology should start with the last Labour government."
Asked in the Commons what bonus Barclays should offer its chief executive this year, Osborne replied: "Less than he was paid in 2009."
Osborne said he wanted a package agreed with the banks before the end of the month that will lead to a material increase in lending, an increase in banks' contributions to the community and a lower overall bonus pool in the first year of this government compared with the last year of the Labour government.
He said: "We want to see bonus restraint. We want to see it lower this year than under the last Labour government. We want to see them deferred.
"We want to make sure they don't reward risk-taking which goes badly wrong, and we want to get away from guaranteed bonuses that people got regardless of what happened to their financial institution.
"That is why we are looking at greater transparency, greater shareholding involvement."
The chancellor said his priority was to see a net increase in lending over and above last year's £180bn, although government officials refused to put a number on how much they hoped to achieve.
Major banks are offering to lend £200bn to businesses in 2011 and being urged to provide more disclosure on pay in talks with the government, known by the codename, Project Merlin.
Tonight, the UK arm of Spanish bank Santander was said to be set to pull out of the talks following the exit of Standard Chartered last month.
Osborne said: "We are seeking a new settlement with the banks ... if we don't agree a new settlement, and if they don't meet our requirements, then nothing is off the table.
"This government have done more in seven months to create a safer, more properly regulated banking system than [Labour] did in 13 years."
Referring to Labour's negotiations with RBS when it joined the asset protection scheme, Osborne said Labour explicitly encouraged bonuses at market rates for 2010, adding nothing meaningful was agreed by the Labour government on increasing lending. Labour demanded a veto on RBS bonuses in 2009.
Nick Clegg puts clear yellow water between Lib Dems and David Cameron
We all know the feeling. You find yourself swept away in a surprising and exciting romance which ends as quickly as it started.
Then, at a moment of despair, another love comes along. Amid the renewed excitement commitments are made which, a few months down the line, appear a little rushed and rather too deep.
Has Nick Clegg (ditched by the British people after a whirlwind romance during the excitement of last year's election television debates) undergone such a rollercoaster of emotions with David Cameron? Remember the Tory leader picked up the Lib Dem leader with his "big, open and comprehensive offer" just as Clegg licked his wounds after presiding over a fall in the number of Lib Dem MPs.
The deputy prime minister told me today that he is preparing to embark on a new phase in his romance – sorry his partnership government in the national interest – with the prime minister. In phase one the two lovers – sorry leaders – hugged eachother close to prove they had formed a durable and credible relationship. Sorry, that should read coalition.
But now they have shown they are serious, a slight chill appears to be entering the partnership. Clegg has said that the time has come to air differences in public:
We are doing a lot of heavy lifting. We have to do that together in the first stages of this coalition government. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't from time to time remind people, if people need reminding, that we are, will be and always will be separate independent parties with separate identities.
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