6 surprising facts about Steve Jobs

Danny Tse

From here....

It's safe to say most investors are well acquainted with the charisma, drive, and brilliance of Steve Jobs. He's the most well-known CEO in the world, and arguably the best too. His announced resignation as Apple CEO is not unexpected, but is still being met with some degree of shock. Here's a short list of facts (not opinions) about Jobs and Apple that are truly surprising.

1) Not A Single Downgrade Today

Jobs' resignation is arguably the worst news out of Apple (AAPL) in years and the Wall Street crowd didn't even blink. 49 out of 51 analysts currently rate Apple a "BUY" with an average price target of $497 a share (according to Factset Data), which is roughly 32% above yesterday's closing price. The Jobs shocker was met not with a flurry of downgrades and panic selling, but rather with a chorus of reiterations and calls to buy on any weakness.

2) Jobs' Stake in Disney Is Twice As Big As His Slice of Apple

As a result of his Pixar sale, Steve Jobs owns 7.4% of Disney (DIS), or 138 million shares, worth roughly $4.5 billion. At the same time, his latest disclosed stake in Apple of 5.5 million shares, represents roughly 0.5% of the total float and is worth about $2.1 billion. His stake in Apple doesn't even make him a top 20 shareholder. In Disney, Jobs' is the top shareholder. His stake is way above Fidelity, Blackrock, State Street, and Vanguard which own chunks ranging from 3 to 4.5%.

3) Apple Gets Sued Almost Every Day

When you have grown to $350 billion in market value with a massive global reach, it is safe to say that you are a large target with deep pockets. In just August alone, 13 lawsuits have been disclosed pertaining to privacy violations in South Korea, class action in the US, numerous patent challenges, as well as a claim of price fixing.

4) Apple Has Not Missed A Quarterly Estimate in Nearly 9 Years

According to Factset, Apple has "beat the street" for 35 consecutive quarters - the longest streak of any company in the S&P 500 except for Cognizant Technology (CTSH). And speaking of earnings, the $7.3 billion net income Apple reported in July made it the largest contributor to earnings growth in the S&P 500 for the 2nd quarter. With Apple, S&P 500 earnings were up 11.8% in Q2. Without it, S&P 499 earnings would have risen only 10.0%.

5) Apple Has Not Traded Under $100 a Share Since March 18, 2009

What's even more astounding is that on a split adjusted basis, (there have been 3) Apple's IPO price is $2.75 a share. For the record, the actual IPO was done on December 12, 1980 at $22.00 a share. If you bought 1,000 shares of the Apple IPO, your $22,000 investment would be worth $2.9 million today.

6) Steve Jobs Personally Holds Over 300 Patents

According to the New York Times, it's actually 313 patents. But what is more telling is the amount that some of his billionaire tech peers have: 9 for Bill Gates and about a dozen for Sergei Brin and Larry Page. Most of Jobs' patents are tech-related, but the Apple founder even holds a patent for a glass staircase.

mantis

Steve For President

mhardy6647

I remember a time in (IIRC) the Newton/John Scully days when Apple stock was in the upper teens. I hated the Apple cult so much, though, that this made me very happy and I would never have thought of buying any Apple stock at that price. I was pretty stupid.

John in MA

Gil Amelio days, I think. Around 1997 when people said they were going to be bought by Sony.

The crazy thing is that the stock's been split several times. If you loaded up when it was $16/share you'd be rolling now.

mhardy6647

John in MA wrote: »

Gil Amelio days, I think. Around 1997 when people said they were going to be bought by Sony.

The crazy thing is that the stock's been split several times. If you loaded up when it was $16/share you'd be rolling now.

You're right - I thought it was later than the early '90s. Yeah... I would've been...

cnh

I remember the late '90s, the college I worked for made the bet that Apple would disappear, they started to switch from a Mac-based platform to PC. I then moved to Jersey for a year before I returned North. The new University had absolutely NO support for Apple products. I had to buy my first IBM Thinkpad (actually a nice machine...still have it, still works).

By the time I returned to my former institution a couple of years later...Jobs was back and Apple 'alive' and 'well'! Unfortunately, I had made the traumatic transition to Windows and all the frustration that was involved with that left scars in my neural matter. lol. Still PCing but the daughter is getting her first Mac as she starts her first year of H.S. My son, now working in Boston, has become a Mac fanatic. And, yet it was I who bought my first Mac Plus in '89? Oh yeah, I still have that and a couple of other Macs after that in the basement. No machine has failed yet?

Oh well!

cnh

John in MA

I used to be a huge hardcore Mac guy. I'd have a hard time buying one now for any reason, but I like the fact the company's doing well and I hope Steve has some life left in him.

MacLeod

Im an Apple hater mainly for the way they try to sue their competition out of existence rather than just competing with them (HTC, Samsung). And the way they have cool stuff, but you can only use their cool stuff with other Apple stuff.

That being said, there is no denying Jobs' genius.

Think about the fact that everything theyve come out with just didnt sell well, it redefined the genre worldwide!

The iPod single handedly changed the way we listen to music. Yeah there were some MP3 players out there, I had a Rio years ago. It held like 5 songs. The iPod not only changed the way we listened to music but it also made digital music a style!

iTunes single handedly changed the way we buy music albeit on the shoulders of Napster.

The iMac didnt totally change the PC but it did take it in a completely new direction.

The iPhone was probably the biggest. It, again, single handedly changed the way we use phones. Nobody but investment bankers had a smart phone til the iPhone. Now high school kids have them.

The iPad is the next thing. It actually went a step further and invented a genre.

So while Apple's business practices suck balls, they are the most influential and most innovative business arguable EVER!

John in MA

MacLeod wrote: »

The iPad is the next thing. It actually went a step further and invented a genre.

It didn't invent a genre, but it did sort of alter it. Tablet PCs have been around forever. But they were based on real computers. Apple instead made a giant PDA using a phone operating system. The interface works better for touch applications.

Although Apple drives me nuts by advertising the iPad as a miracle replacement for everything in your house. It's a huge iPhone you can't make calls on. I remember a news article with someone saying they missed the multitasking of their laptop, so they were going to carry two iPads with them. And a school district that decided iPads would revolutionize their meetings, despite the fact everyone already had a computer.