Apple should have revealed Jobs' op, claims Warren Buffett
Apple should have revealed that CEO Steve Jobs had a liver transplant, because it is a "material fact" for shareholders of the company, at least according to high-profile US investor and businessman Warren Buffett.
The Iconic investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett told CNBC: "If I have any serious illness, or something coming up of an important nature, an operation or anything like that, I think the thing to do is just tell the American, the Berkshire shareholders about it. I work for 'em."
Warren Buffett continued: "Some people might think I'm important to the company. Certainly Steve Jobs is important to Apple. So it's a material fact. Whether he is facing serious surgery or not is a material fact. Whether I'm facing serious surgery is a material fact. Whether (General Electric CEO) Jeff Immelt is, I mean, so I think that's important," reports Cnet.
The Chicago Tribune explains that companies are not required to divulge medical details about executives. However, the lawyers the newspaper spoke to said that companies are required to disclose "material" information -- which is basically any news an investor would need to know to make an informed decision on buying or selling stock.
Lawyer Jeffrey C. Soza said: "If they tried to lessen the disclosure and make it misleading by omission, that's just as bad as telling something that flat isn't true."
If Apple investors had known that Jobs was so sick that he required liver transplant they may have not wished to invest in the company's stock.
However, some experts say Apple fulfilled its legal obligation by saying that Jobs was on medical leave.
» posted by ITworld staff
Macworld.co.uk
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