Walter Isaacson, author of the best-selling Steve Jobs bio, thinks Apple is in great hands as a corporation, despite the death of its inspirational leader.
“He ended up with the most loyal management team of A players of any corporation in America,” said Isaacson, speaking at a breakfast conversation sponsored by Fortune at Nasdaq headquarters Thursday morning.
And while Isaacson spent two years and conducted more than 40 interviews with Jobs before his death, he conceded he could not venture a guess as to what Jobs meant by his final words.
With his wife, children, and biological sister and author Mona Simpson at his side, Jobs was said to have looked past them and uttered as his final words, “Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow.”
Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief John Huey asked, “As the foremost interpreter of Steve Jobs, what was he talking about?”
Isaacson ducked the question at first, but then offered some interesting theories.
“I obviously don’t know. And it would be very presumptuous of me to say, ‘OK, he said this, and this is what he meant,’ Isaacson said.
“He used to always talk about being on a journey. I mean, maybe he knew it when he said, ‘Oh wow,’ but you don’t know what the end of that journey is. . . . His favorite maxim was: ‘And the journey is the reward.’”
Andy Serwer, Fortune’s managing editor, asked, “Maybe he was really going through that white door at that moment, right?”
Isaacson replied, “Well, I’m glad — as with everything in Steve’s life — he leaves us with a slightly inspiring mystery.”
Keith J. Kelly
Cue the fat lady
There is something about owning a music label, like owning a football team or film studio, that attracts interest from a host of boldfaced names.
Sean Parker, Ron Burkle and Ron Perlman are among the parties who lined up to get a shot at the hallowed British record label EMI.
But few expected billionaire David Geffen to emerge Friday as a key investor on Sony’s bid for EMI’s publishing asset.
The mogul, whose last major investment was in DreamWorks SKG in the mid-’90s, flew under the radar as a last-minute participant in a $2.2 billion bid for the publishing arm of EMI.
Legendary music business impresario Geffen launched Donna Summer’s career, and his former label Geffen Records still exists as part of Universal Music Group.
Behind the scenes, a host of dealmakers had been working the phones at a feverish pace for weeks to pull off the deal — none more so than UBS head investment banker Aryeh Bourkoff, who worked to bring together money for four of the prospective bidders for Citi’s $4 billion prize.
Pulling off the biggest upset of the week was Sony CFO and dealmaker Rob Wiesenthal, according to several sources close to the process. He cobbled together a hodgepodge of investors including Blackstone and the sovereign fund Mubadala to fulfill Sony CEO Howard Stringer’s longtime vision of growing publishing outside of the Sony Music label.
But it ain’t over till the fat lady sings, and regulators will sound the final note, potentially sparking another go-round of asset sales. Claire Atkinson
Munn’s the word
Billy Crystal isn’t the only one benefiting from Brett Ratner’s Academy Award-like meltdown.
Stunning actress/comedian Olivia Munn (pictured) is on the verge of cashing in thanks to Ratner’s big trap, which suggested she was one of his many sexual conquests.
Munn, who has roles in a handful of films in post-production, while already appearing in several hits such as “Iron Man 2,” may be heading back to the small screen and in a larger role.
After cutting her teeth on “Attack of the Show!” Munn was poised to show audiences her witty and twisted side on NBC’s “Perfect Couples,” but the show was pulled after only a couple of weeks earlier this year.
But the recent media attention — and Munn’s Tweet describing Ratner as “too fat to say chubby, not fat enough to say fat,” has execs hot after her, armed with scripts and perhaps bringing “Perfect Couples” back as a replacement.
“The creative and hysterical way she handled herself during [Ratner]’s disgusting display opened the eyes of networks struggling to add quality shows to their lineups,” an insider told OTM.
Munn, who’s currently worth close to $5M, just laughed off Ratner’s apology, as she’s focused on finishing production on four films slated for 2012, including “Magic Mike,” co-starring Matthew McConaughey.”
The sexy, sharp-tongued Munn will see a $1M paycheck for her role in the flick and, according to our insider, won’t see “anything less than $40K-per-episode” once she decides which comedy pilot to call her own.
Munn’s reps didn’t return a call by presstime. Joseph Barracato