Jobs' unexpected departure could cut Apple's share price by almost half

Mar 24, 2008 15:20 GMT  ·  By

Get ready to love / hate Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, even more as the guy has made Barron's annual list of the 30 best corporate heads worldwide, according to MacsimumNews. Jobs is a "consummate innovator" and is "arguably is the world's most valuable CEO," as the magazine reckons, in assembling its fourth annual list of the 30 best CEOs out there.

Sure, there have been both positive and negative news about Apple's CEO. The guy has even been caught lying, but no one should blame him too much for that, since we all know that the end justifies the means. As far as the good news surrounding Jobs, why... every Apple news is Steve Jobs flavored, as is every Apple device, piece of software, and so on. So arguably, yes, Jobs is responsible for a great deal of feats. His greatest? Running Apple, of course. And here's why:

"[His] unexpected departure could cut 30 or 40 points from the price of Apple shares, now around 130. That makes him a $25 billion man. From the iPod to the iPhone, Jobs continues to innovate and to defy doubters awaiting a major failure. And with Apple depending on the success of new products in the fiercely competitive market for consumer electronics, Jobs is the ultimate high-wire act in American business," barrons.com reveals.

The test of a chief exec, according to Barron's, "comes in tough times," where managing a large corporation requires more than just "moxie," when economy and financial markets "sour." That's why CEOs today are worthy of Barron's World's Best CEOs list, since they need to "confront a challenging business environment while juggling the demands of customers, employees," but also investors.

Since "great CEOs shine in hard times," Barron's chose not to use crisis-management as the main criterion to put together a fourth annual list of the 30 best corporate leaders in the world. This is the exact reason why this year's Barron's 30 are the most suitable for the upper mentioned tasks, as the mag informs, with Jobs being declared as the most valuable of the lot.