Editorial

Posted on 6 May 2009 at 11:01

 

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The SEC deposition transcripts simply reinforce Jobs' acute privacy.

Remember summer 2006, when Apple had been picked up for backdating some directors' stock options? The SEC was investigating Nancy Heinen, the company's general council, and calling board members to give evidence.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs must have thought it was behind him by now, but Forbes magazine put in a request for the deposition transcripts, and has put them online.

For someone so acutely private as Jobs, it must make for painful reading, showing as it does a man with a seemingly poor recollection of key events in his company's past.

Much of it is redacted - you can fill in the blanks with a quick trip to Wikipedia - but it includes passages such as this, which Jobs gives when asked about Apple's first CEO. 'Originally, it was [ ],' he said. 'And -- well, actually -- I think it was a man named [ ] -- I don't think [ ] was the CEO initially. I think it was -- it might have been [ ] yeah, and then [ ] and then [ ] again and then [ ].'

Now let's give Jobs credit where credit's due for being a man under pressure and not inconsiderable stress at the time. He had already undergone treatment for cancer, was still on medication and had the eyes of the world looking his way. He might not have designed and built the iPod, iMac and iLife, but he did deliver them and could expect the blame for any failing follow-ups.

Still, you could expect more definitive answers. How long had he been on the board of Apple? 'I think since the beginning ... but I'm not - I don't fully recollect, but I think since the beginning.'

It's only when you've read a good way into the deposition that you see what all of these answers have in common: they cap off questions that are at least vaguely personal to Apple's CEO. When did he found Apple? How long was he on the board? How long did he keep the 'interim' bit of his iCEO title?

The matters on which Jobs seems to be the least clear are the ones closest to himself, which should perhaps not be so surprising. These are, after all, precisely the subjects on which he has always shown the greatest reluctance to speak.

There will never be an authorised biography of this very private man and it's unlikely he would write his own. The way he answers questions, though, tells us a lot about his dedication, and perhaps why we should cut him some slack when he's back on Infinite Loop. Not slack in his business decisions, but in his personal life. He seems to care less about his past than the present, and less about himself than his company, so why should we?

Author: Nik Rawlinson