Jobs' Return to Apple Is Path Strewn With Controversy

The public relations strategists at Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) might want to consider a job in politics for their next gig: It is rare for any company to be so deliberately opaque with information essential to stockholders -- and still manage to stay on this side of the law.

Indeed, the company's recent disclosure that CEO Steve Jobs was back at work was a thing of Machiavellian beauty. Apple did not make the announcement outright, but Jobs has been sighted at the Cupertino headquarters in recent days.

Nor did the company announce that Jobs had undergone surgery for a liver transplant two months ago in Tennessee -- that news was broken by The Wall Street Journal.

All Apple did was insert a quote by Jobs in a press release announcing the news that it had sold more than 1 million units of the iPhone 3G S during its first weekend.

Apple presumably reintroduced its chief to the public eye in this manner to blunt the potential negative financial fallout from the news about the transplant, according to Peter Cohan of Peter Cohan & Associates.

That news was eventually confirmed by the Tennessee hospital where he received the transplant. Reportedly, he had end-stage liver disease, making the procedure vital to his survival.

Apple did not reply to a request for comment on this story.

Privacy vs. Shareholder Rights

Jobs is certainly entitled to a measure of privacy. Clearly, the man has been very ill, having undergone surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer in 2004; additional health issues subsequently unfolded. He took a leave of absence in January, citing health reasons. At the time, he said he had been diagnosed with a hormonal imbalance that was responsible for his noticeable weight loss. COO Tim Cook ran the day-to-day operations of the company in his absence.

All the secrecy worried shareholders, however. Steve Jobs was -- and is -- synonymous with Apple. Indeed, he can be counted among just a handful of tech CEOs who are truly iconic -- that is, who are recognized as readily as their products are. More to the point, as far as investors were concerned, was the gnawing worry that there were no clear -- or at least, no obvious -- long-term plans for an Apple without Jobs at the helm.

Let's suppose those concerns are a thing of the past. Jobs' latest medical ordeal seems to have gone well, and he is out and about.

What does this mean for Apple?

All Good

For fans, it's a no-brainer. Jobs made Apple into a top computer company. Even if he should remain on a part-time basis, he could still lend guidance and expertise to projects -- as well as keep shareholders reasonably happy.

"He's the best there is," Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne told MacNewsWorld. "Best-case scenario is Steve Jobs recovers, goes back to work, and stays there 100 years."

The best-case scenario for Apple is that Steve Jobs is able to work 100 percent with full speed and attention to drive Apple's strategy over the next few years, agreed N. Venkat Venkatraman, a management professor at Boston University.

"An equally good alternative is that he is able to fully engage in whatever capacity his health allows ... to guide Tim Cook and the management team to succeed along the path that he seems to have laid out," Venkatraman told MacNewsWorld.

Jobs at full strength -- or even half strength -- could easily push Apple to continue to come up with great new ideas for products, Cohan told MacNewsWorld. "He did it with the iPhone, with the iPod -- one of the big questions is what will be the next big consumer device. I think Jobs will be key in answering that question."

A new type of netbook is one possibility, he suggested.

Lingering Questions

The downside of Jobs' return is an increased focus on Apple's corporate governance standards -- or lack thereof.

"Jobs appears to believe that Apple's board is a piece of corporate window dressing rather than an essential agent of shareholders," Cohan wrote in a blog post. "Unfortunately, a look at General Motors (NYSE: GM) board -- which supported former CEO Rick Wagoner through a 98 percent decline in its stock price -- reveals that Jobs is not alone in treating Apple's board with contempt."

It remains to be seen whether the advantages Jobs brings to Apple will outweigh this one very significant drawback, he said.