A revelation Saturday that Apple CEO Steve Jobs underwent liver transplant surgery in April has sparked discussion over the amount of disclosure appropriate at public companies. According to BusinessWeek, governance experts are critical of the “too little, too late” disclosure, and believe more openness is needed for healthy shareholder relations.
Apple and Jobs, who announced in January that he would be taking a six-month leave of absence for unspecified health reasons, have kept investors in the dark regarding the chief executive’s health status, even after the Wall Street Journal broke the news about the transplant.
Questions arise as to what role regulators should take in spurring company officials to disclose health information. John Coffee of Columbia Law School says that the Securities and Exchange Commission “has assiduously avoided giving clear guidance on when the CEO’s health is material.”
Nell Minow of the Corporate Library complains that such weak disclosure demonstrates an unhealthy relationship between Jobs and the Apple board of directors. “The board has proven again and again that it is being treated like an operating division of the company rather than the supervisor of the CEO,” says Minow. “At times like this, you want to be hearing a significant statement.”