Comment by kazinator

4 hours ago

I believe that the action does reflect Jobs' ego in the following way.

Namely, his belief that CEO == company.

Jobs would never take the view that the action of the CEO of ATI is actually one bad actor acting alone which doesn't represent what ATI wants as an organization, and is unfair and damaging to that organization and all of its employees.

The reason he would not take that view is because then he would not be able to believe that he is the single most important thing at Apple, overshadowing everything else.

If the leak had been the responsibility of some rank and file employee at ATI, with appropriate action taken against that employee by the ATI CEO, it is likely that Jobs would likely have reacted differently, because it then would not longer be seen as a personal matter between him and the CEO, where the corporations are just pawns in a game of teach-you-a-lesson.

Ultimately, it is the CEO who has to take responsibility. They are the chief executive officer, after all. And they are well compensated for it.