Steve Jobs' fake alter ego surfaces

Published on Tuesday 7 August 2007 01:03

A BLOGGER calling himself "Fake Steve Jobs", whose parody of the Apple chief executive enthralled Silicon Valley, has revealed himself as an editor of the Forbes business magazine.

Dan Lyons, a senior editor at Forbes, admitted writing as Fake Steve after a New York Times reporter found resemblances between the blog and Lyons' published work and asked him whether he was behind the long-running satire.

Lyons told the Times he had started the fake blog, fakesteve.blogspot.com, last year to poke fun at the lack of candidness he saw in the growing number of chief executives' blogs attracting media attention.

"I knew I couldn't stay anonymous forever. It had to happen at some point," Lyons said.

Lyons used his adopted persona to poke fun at Real Steve Jobs' reputation for being a highly demanding, even arrogant, manager, offering gems such as: "The MBAs say you should set high standards, let people know what's expected of them, and hold them to that. I do a little twist on that and say, hold people to an impossibly high standard, but here's the twist - don't tell them what that standard is. And fire them if they fall short."

GOOD DAY

Bob Nardelli

THE former boss of DIY chain Home Depot, where he was awarded a record $210 million severance package, gets the top job at car-maker Chrysler, following its purchase by private equity group Cerberus Capital Management.

BAD DAY

Bob Mellors

PRESSURE appears to be growing on the long-time finance director of Sports Direct, whose shares fell to another new low yesterday, amid reports institutional investors are calling for a replacement to be found after Mellors was described as "out of his depth".

KILLER QUOTE

OUR report shows a growing number of parents will find themselves subsidising their sons' and daughters' mortgages. Across the country, more and more people are going to find themselves priced out of the property market."

National Housing Federation chief executive David Orr, after revealing the cost of an average home in England is set to soar by 40 per cent over the next five years.

FACT OF THE DAY: 35,875

MIDDLE-CLASS British families have seen their earnings soar at more than twice the rate of personal inflation, new figures show.

The average family has enjoyed a 42.8 per cent income increase since 1997 - to an average of 35,875. During the same period, the cost of things they buy has risen by just 18.2 per cent, according to Halifax Financial Services.