Econintersect: Monday morning (January 17) Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, sent an e-mail to employees announcing he had been granted a medical leave of absence. This is the third time during the past seven years that Jobs has taken such a leave, but the first time it was announced at the beginning. Previous leaves, in 2004 for treatment of pancreatic cancer and in 2009 for a liver transplant, were announced after the leaves were underway.According to the Wall Street Journal, the e-mail consisted of six sentences. From the WSJ:
Mr. Jobs wrote … that he will continue as CEO of Apple and “be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.” He wrote, “I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can” and said he and his family would “deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.”
No details about the nature of the medical condition was revealed. MarketWatch provides a link to the full e-mail text.
Apple’s number two excutive, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, will be in charge of day to day operations at the company during Job’s absence. Cook was in charge during Mr. Job’s last medical leave in 2009. There seems to be little question about the operations of the company. What many are speculating about is Steve Job and “the vision thing”.
There is speculation that AAPL stock may trade lower tomorrow on this news. However, earnings for the last quarter are due to be announced tomorrow and that may have a bigger impact on AAPL for the rest of the week.
Sources: The Financial Times, MarketWatch and The Wall Street Journal.
