Jamie Dimon Cancer News Creates More Uncertainty at J.P. Morgan
Following Tuesday evening's announcement that J.P. Morgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has throat cancer, investors will be closely monitoring his treatment.
Following Tuesday evening’s announcement that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon has throat cancer, investors will be closely monitoring his treatment and are likely to want more information rather than less from the bank about its succession planning. Dimon, who is 58 years old, said in a press release last night that the cancer is curable and that he will soon begin eight-week radiation and chemotherapy treatment. Like everyone else, we wish him a speedy recovery.
According to the press release Dimon “will be able to continue to be actively involved in [JPM’s] business and we will continue to run the company as normal.” We might point out that being able to be involved is not the same thing as being involved.
It is natural that the bank wants to minimize the impact of Dimon’s treatments on the bank’s operation, but someone whose name is not Jamie Dimon will be running the bank’s daily operations, and the bank needs to make clear who that is. The bank has no official succession plan, and at the very least Dimon’s illness should prod J.P. Morgan into action on that front.
The emphasis that Dimon and, apparently J.P. Morgan’s board, put on the curable nature of Dimon’s cancer and the relatively short treatment period could give one pause about the board’s willingness to work through a succession plan. While this may strike some as inappropriate and even macabre, the fact that J.P. Morgan has no such plan is the issue. Dimon’s health just draws a line under the board’s dilatoriness.
The bank’s stock was down about 0.5% in premarket trading Wednesday, at $57.31 in a 52-week range of $50.06 to $61.48.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
