How much is Steve Jobs worth?

Today the blogosphere (yes, I said it) started buzzing about how Steve Jobs looked thin during the big hoo haa earlier this week to announce the 3G iPhone. Jobs battled pancreatic cancer in 2004 and there are fears that his health could be in jeopardy. So why do I bring this up? Simply to provide an interesting factoid.

These rumors (and there is no substantiation to the rumors whatsoever) of Jobs potential declining health dropped Apple's stock $7.55 today. With 881.6 million shares outstanding this means that the rumor cost Apple $6.65 billion dollars (and me $175). Apple better hope they can make this guy live forever.

The lesson here is if you think Steve Jobs is mortal than short sell Apple.


(Disclaimer: I don't know anything about the stock market. It is likely that the analysts following the stock know more than I do so if you short sell Apple and you lose all your money when it shoots up to $250 don't blame it on me. This was simply for entertainment sake and to distract myself from my Capital Markets homework. Does it make the advice more credible since I am currently working on Capital Markets homework? Maybe. I will make one prediction. When news comes that Jobs is going to retire, Apple stock will fall significantly. It doesn't take Nostradamus to call that one though.)