Steve Jobs: Why I Never Owned Apple Stock

Just a few hours ago Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple. I have never invested in Apple because of this reason (also the company hasn’t had a long history of paying out dividends). At any rate, tomorrow the market will decide how much this will affect the value of Apple through their stock price. Jobs is leaving a company that is worth $349 billion in market value. Time will tell whether this increases or not.

People are asking why Jobs is not running the day to day operations of the company and I think the answer is pretty obvious. Steve Jobs has had significant health issues over the years. Usually CEOs are very reluctant to give up the reigns of their company. One can only speculate the health issues Steve Jobs is going through. I honesty wonder how long Jobs will be alive given he has pancreatic cancer which is usually a death sentence.

I find it a little bizarre that people act as if Steve Jobs as some saint. If anyone did any type of research they would realize he heavily micromanages his employees and somewhat of an egomaniac. However despite this, I would say that we all have benefitted from this. Steve Jobs takes only $1 salary which is of course symbolic. If you look at the actual amount Steve Jobs makes in just stock options it is over $14 million which is well above the average of $8 million paid to a CEO of any S&P 500 company. Jobs also did get a $90 million Gulfstream V jet in 1999 as a bonus. So if you include all the perks and extra that jobs get it is well over $1. The problem I have is people actually might believe that Jobs is living off very little and not greedy. I don’t believe a CEO or owner of a company wakes up to just make money. The main reason I believe a CEO or owner gets up is to create something new, to solve problems, or to more importantly make progress. Money of course does give people an incentive. Steve Jobs has made many people better off including himself. However, people are now saying Jobs is the best CEO of all time. I enjoy when people make statements but have no data or evidence to back it up. If you look at the performance of Apple stock and compare it to Oracle or even Microsoft since the 1980s, Apple has underperformed both stocks. A CEO’s job is to create value. So Steve Jobs may have taken his $1 symbolic pay, but compared to other companies Steve Jobs is not increasing shareholder value at the same rate as other companies within the same industry.

Part of the reason I never owned Apple is because of Steve Jobs. If Steve Jobs ever left or walked away it would be hard and maybe even difficult to recreate what he brought to the company. Warren Buffet points out that you shouldn’t need a rock star to run a business. Only time will tell if Jobs leaving will make a large impact.