Breaking News: Steve Jobs out for 5 months

Breaking news this morning as I just woke up. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that he was taking a five month sick leave and handing over his roles to COO Tim Cook.

Back in December Apple announced its final year at Macworld Expo and that Phil Schiller was going to do the keynote speech, traditionally done by Steve Jobs every year since 1997. This sparked a flurry of speculation over his health and Apple's stock took a beating but at that moment was unfounded.

Last week's letter from Jobs explained that he decided against preparing for Macworld Expo to spend more time with the family but he also said,

I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple's CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first

This morning Apple stock was halted suddenly at $85.33 and within moments news broke that Jobs was taking a medical leave until June stunning the technology world and shareholders. Subsequently Apple released yet another letter from Jobs outlining his decision after it was distributed among Apple employees.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

Previously Jobs handed over the reigns to Cook for one month back in 2004 when he underwent surgery to treat a rare form of curable pancreatic cancer and canceled his keynote speech at Apple Expo Paris one year later.

Loading mentions Retweet

Jan 14, 2009

Brett McGuire said...

The cult of personality is a dangerous, dangerous thing. The impression I get is that pretty much everyone in the industry believes that Apple's success is 100% Steve Jobs. Apparently the (stock)market thinks so too, which is kinda dumb. Apple will do just fine without Steve Jobs.

Jan 15, 2009

Arvino Mudjiarto said...

Brett, with all respect to what Apple team did and can do, I somehow sincerely believe the role of Steve Jobs is important.

If not, how could we ever explain Apple -- the same iconic company -- that many people considered 'almost dead' 10 years ago, suddenly could recover and become an innovation leader once more, once Steve Jobs is back.

In that retrospect, the role of Steve Jobs is indeed is really key.

Into the future, Apple may or may be not able to succeed without Steve Jobs around -- we shall see. But as history shown, when Steve Jobs left Apple in the past, the company, its product and its brand suffer; the company increasingly become irrelevant and almost dead, when Steve Jobs was not around; It is only when Steve Jobs came back, Apple recover once more, and taken back its amazing role of being able to induce great leadership, exciting innovation, and do most amazing comeback that business history ever seen happening.

My two cents. :-)

Cheers,
-arv

@arv - I too believe that Steve Jobs has been key to Apple's success. I suppose my point is that we shouldn't make the assumption that Apple needs Steve Jobs to succeed.

If Apple cannot succeed without Jobs, then Jobs was a monarch, not a leader.

@brett: I agree with your view and perspective. :-) As an organization, this time and into the future, apple will have to learn and will have to be able to succeed greatly with or without steve jobs around. When such happen, the self sustain and self grow organization would then be the founder's greatest legacy. Cheers, -arv.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...!

Loading Bars

Fans of this post