Legal News

SEC Interested in ?Steve Jobs Health? Factor

By Dan Slater

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Oct. 14, 2008. (AP)

Last week, the investing community dwelt on the “Steve Jobs health” factor when the Apple CEO, just a week after reassuring investors and employees about his health, revealed, somewhat cryptically, that he has a “more complex” medical condition and will take a leave of absence until the end of June.

Now the SEC is taking a look, too.

Spokesmen for Apple and the SEC both declined to comment to the WSJ about the inquiry. It’s unclear how advanced the SEC investigation is.

“If they knew at that time that statement [about a hormone imbalance] was not correct that could be a problem for them,” Brad Simon, a former federal prosecutor, told the Journal. “From what I can see based on what I’m reading it could be a big problem. He [Mr. Jobs] is Apple.”

The WSJ notes that, in 2007, H-P settled a case with the SEC, without admitting or denying wrongdoing, for failing to describe the reason behind a director’s resignation. H-P director and venture capitalist Tom Perkins had resigned the year before after disagreeing with the company over how to punish those who leaked corporate information. In announcing the resignation, H-P didn’t disclose the disagreement. The SEC said H-P erred because under securities laws, a company needs to disclose the reason if a director leaves over a disagreement about company policy.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 22, 2009 (boomark / email).