WSJ: Apple director nearly resigned over Jobs' health disclosure
Jerry York, who died last week, was reportedly "disgusted" by the Apple chief's failure to explain the seriousness of his illness last January.
Plenty of people outside of Apple have chimed in on Steve Jobs' failure to disclose the seriousness of his health problems in early 2009, but at least one of the company's board members felt so strongly about it he reportedly almost quit.
Apple director Jerry York, who died of a brain aneurysm last week, was at least one of the people privy to Jobs' condition who felt he should have been more upfront with shareholders and the public. A story in The Wall Street Journal Thursday, citing an interview with York last year, says that when he found out how ill Jobs really was, he almost resigned his position on the board of directors. He said Jobs should have disclosed the matter in the same press release the company sent out in late December announcing Jobs would not be speaking at MacWorld Expo, according to the Journal.
In early January, Jobs said he was skipping the event to deal with a hormone imbalance. Two weeks later, he announced he would take a six-month leave of absence from the company. Only later did it leak out that Jobs had undergone liver transplant surgery in April.
York told the Journal that the way Jobs handled the situation "disgusted" him. He said, "Frankly, I wish I had resigned then," but ultimately did not because he didn't want to add to the media frenzy already encompassing the company at the time.