ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., Dec. 28, 2007---Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has been chosen as the CNBC's Face of Business 2007. The announcement was made this afternoon during the 4 PM ET hour of CNBC's "Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo."
Jobs received an overwhelming of votes---78%--in a poll conducted on CNBC.com. between December 20 and December 26.
The other "nominees" were: Chuck Prince, former Chairman and CEO of Citigroup (who received 6.9% of the vote), the American Home Owner (4.1%), the "Google Guys" (Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt) (3%), Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial (2.6%), Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Group (1.7%), Rick Wagoner, Chairman and CEO of General Motors (1.2%), Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (1%). Those receiving less than 1% were: Sovereign Funds, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry (Hank) Paulson, and Steve Schwarzman, Chairman and co-founder of the Blackstone Group. The full results can be seen at CNBC.com.
"This was a year of great business triumphs and headlines, and all of those nominated had significant impact on the world of business and, therefore, were worthy of consideration," said Jonathan Wald, Senior Vice President, Business News, CNBC. "But Steve Jobs is driving Apple to new heights, including a record stock price."
Apple's stock price is up approximately 135.5% in the past year and closed today at $199.83. Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976. Apple is an industry leader in innovation with its iPhone, Macintosh computers, OS X operating system, and consumer and professional applications software. Apple has sold over 110 million iPods and over three billion songs from its iTunes online store. Jobs also co-founded Pixar Animation Studios, which has created movies such as "Toy Story," "A Bug's Life," and "The Incredibles."
Earlier today, CNBC announced that CNBC viewers chose Jim Cramer's rant against the Fed Chairman Bernanke on the "Stop Trading" segment of "Street Signs" (2-3 PM ET) as the Top CNBC Moment of 2007. In the segment, which was originally broadcast on Aug. 3, 2007, Cramer told "Street Signs" anchor Erin Burnett that he thought Bernanke had no idea how bad things were. "He's nuts," Cramer shouted. "They (the Fed) know nothing." Coming in second was Burnett's ride on an actual bull outside the New York Stock Exchange during "Squawk Box" (6-9 AM ET). Cramer received 73% and Burnett received 10% of those who voted on CNBC.com. (The full results can be viewed at moments07.cnbc.com.)
About CNBC:
CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news, providing real-time financial market coverage and business information to more than 340 million homes worldwide, including more than 95 million households in the United States and Canada. The network's Business Day programming (weekdays from 5:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and also includes reports from CNBC news bureaus worldwide. Additionally, CNBC viewers can manage their individual investment portfolios and gain additional in-depth information from on-air reports by accessing http://www.cnbc.com.
Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site at http://nbcumv.com/cnbc/.