HUA HIN, Thailand - How do you count the cost of Steve Jobs' resignation as
chief executive of Apple, the computer maker he founded, left, then revived
from near bankruptcy to vie with Exxon as the world's biggest company?
About US$52 billion was wiped from the September contract on the Standard &
Poor's 500 Index after the announcement in after-hours trading on Wednesday,
giving one rough measure of his perceived value in terms of what is cool, if
expensive, in the world of smartphones, laptops, software and, most recently,
tablets.
Apple shares, which dipped more than 5% on the news, have surged more than
9,000% since he retook the company helm in July 1997, its $346 billion-plus
valuation helping it briefly pass Exxon this month as the world's largest
company by market capitalization.
Some Apple lovers, cherishing their iPads, iPhones, iMacs and
iTunes collections as if they had been personally hand-crafted or
hand-delivered by the 56-year-old Jobs, shed tears at the thought of his
departure as he continues to battle cancer he has suffered for several years.
Others were more level-headed.
Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer since 2007 and a long-time stand-in
when Jobs had to take leave of absence, takes over as chief executive officer.
Daedalus Capital chief investment officer Stephen Coleman, who has held Apple
shares since they were at $11 in 2004, speaking on Bloomberg Television, argued
the change will be imperceptible, with the company's plans already laid out
well into the future.
The one difference he sees - Cook will now be the suit notching up
exhausting air miles to forge deals and sign papers, while Jobs will be relaxing
in California doing what he does best - dreaming up the next sleek winner in
the electronic gadgets world. Coleman forecasts the shares, at around $350 this week,
will hit $600 by the year end.
Perhaps - but one look at software giant Microsoft suggest another possibility.
Company founder Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive in January 2000
(when Microsoft shares traded at around $55). In 2008, when he fully handed
over the reins of the company to long-time back-up Steve Ballmer, the stock was
around $26 and falling. Three years on, they are below $25.
At least Microsoft is still used on most of the world's computers. One-time
technology blue chip and top computer maker Hewlett Packard, the archetypal
garage start-up to riches story, has fallen even further from grace.
Chief executive Leo Apotheker, barely 10 months in the post, last week said HP
aimed to dump its $41 billion PC business and pull its Palm smartphones and
tablets from stores, effectively quitting the consumer market to focus on
business software.
Chairman Ray Lane conceded: "There have been big, big changes over the last
year, and some of them have been more acute and faster than we expected."
Quite. The shares plummeted more than 20% on the news and have halved in value
over the past three years.
HP rival Acer, until recently seen as a sharp innovator as it climbed the
market ranks to be the world's second-largest computer maker, is also now
battling to survive. This week the Taiwanese company announced to its first
loss in almost a decade and confessed full-year profit will be "impossible",
even after writing off inventory and laying off workers.
Acer is now ranked fourth in the market and its shares have halved in
value since August 1 to about a third of their worth nine months ago.
Perhaps the trick is to follow the example of chip giant Intel and get out
quickly from unpromising byways. New York-based SpectraWatt Inc, a maker of
solar products, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week, owing creditors
$38.7 million and complaining about competition from Chinese rivals that could
churn out cheaper products helped by government financial backing. SpectraWatt
was spun off from Intel in 2008.
Intel, unencumbered by its failing former offspring, is gearing up for its annual
developer forum in San Francisco in the middle of next month, when boss Paul
Otellini will outline how he intends to keep the company's well-established
lead as the world's biggest chip producer.
Otellini will be
anticipating a renewed challenge in some markets from smaller rival Advanced Micro
Devices. AMD chairman Bruce Claflin this week lured Rory Read, president and
chief operating officer of Chinese computer maker Lenovo, to be the California-based
company's chief executive. His appointment took effect immediately.
Read has been president of Lenovo since 2009, helping the company to be the
fastest-growing PC maker for seven straight quarters while grabbing market
share from the likes of Hewlet Packard and Acer.
One of Hewlett Packard's new goals is to excel in the field of crunching large
amounts of data. That means it needs the likes of 28-year-old Jeff
Hammerbacher, who won recognition this week on the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology's annual Technology Review list of outstanding innovators under the
age of 35.
Hammerbacher honed his skills at Facebook and follows in the footsteps of the
social networking company's founder Mark Zuckerberg, who was on the MIT list in
2007.
Asian scientists scored high in the list.
Among them are Umar Saif, from Pakistan's Lahore University, recognized for
improving connectivity in regions with outdated landlines. Indians on the list
include Ajit Narayanan of Invention Labs, Chennai, and Aishwarya Ratan for work
in converting paper records to digital in real time - which will help rural
farmers keep a better track of their records.
From China, Yu-Guo Guo, 33, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in
Beijing, was listed after creating a cheap, safe material for electric-vehicle
batteries, while Kun Zhou, also 33, of Zhejiang University, won plaudits for
work in creating movie-quality graphics in real time.
Other star innovators included Kim Dae-hyeong, 34, from Seoul National
University for developing "stretchable electronics" for medical devices, and
Xiao Li for work on anticipating what Internet users are searching for.
Young innovators now, names
to watch for the future.
Chris Stewart is an
Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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