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Steve's Little Finger (3/30/98)
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As most of you are well aware, the big news tonight is the confirmation that Steve Jobs really does have the rest of the Apple board eating out of his hand. That should come as no surprise to anyone, given that, since assuming the role of interim CEO last summer, he's managed to double the company's stock price and post a profit, all the while slowly and subtly reversing the trend of the media portraying Apple as a lame duck. So it would have been "unseemly" for the Apple board to hand Jobs an ultimatum in last Tuesday's board meeting-- take the job for good or move over and let someone else take the helm-- as had been suggested by some.
Instead, as board member Ed Woolard told the Dow Jones news service last Friday, no such ultimatum was posed, and no deadline was imposed by which Jobs must make a decision. The board is plainly happy to grab as much of Jobs as they can get, whether he be "interim" or not. "We hope he will stay a long time," says Woolard. There are more details in a ZDNet article.
Why do we get the feeling that Steve's just playing with us? A long, long time ago we at AtAT suggested a conspiracy theory that Steve's seemingly go-nowhere CEO hunt was a clever and intentional way to be CEO of Apple indefinitely (and permanently) without ever having to take the job publicly. Why would he want to do that? Because, as you may recall, back when Amelio was first ousted and the initial rumors of Steve becoming Apple CEO began to circulate, he flat-out told his employees at Pixar that he would not take the job, but instead remained committed to his post as CEO of Pixar. Well, given that he's clocked three months longer than he said he'd stay and hardly anyone's batted an eye, it seems like the plan's working. In fact, if he keeps on interim-ing for another three months or so, everyone will probably forget all about his declaration that he wouldn't take the job and he can leap in with both feet. After all, the public's memory is pretty short. We look forward to the day, personally.
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SceneLink (581)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 3/30/98 episode: March 30, 1998: Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field continues to hold the rest of the Apple board helpless in its unbreakable grip. Meanwhile, debate rages on over whether Steve plans to announce his formal czarship in April, or just keep stringing the audience along for as long as he can, and a future incarnation of the venerable Mac OS illustrates what happens when you replace every part of your old car with new merchandise...
Other scenes from that episode: 582: Or, Just Possibly... (3/30/98) On the other hand, we may not have to wait for the Jobs CEO announcement too long after all, if Reality's clues have any merit. Consider the following: next month's stockholder meeting, already delayed several times since February, has Jobs slated for the keynote address... 583: Mac OS-a-Go-Go (3/30/98) Man, it's not like it was hard to get excited about the Mac OS before, but these days, the future is positively thrilling. Sure, the first customer release of Rhapsody's coming out this July, according to Mac OS Rumors (probably to be unveiled at MacWorld Expo New York?), but Allegro's due in the same time frame, which will bring a slew of cool features to the "average Mac user's" desktop, such as better performance, awesome Appearance themes, and improved memory protection...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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