Apple CEO Steve Jobs has posted an open letter online. Here it is, verbatim:
Dear Apple Community,
For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.
Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.
I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.
As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.
Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.
The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.
I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. 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.
So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.
Steve
Source: Apple Inc.
Also today, Apple’s Board of Directors have released a statement, verbatim:
It is widely recognized both inside and outside of Apple that Steve Jobs is one of the most talented and effective CEOs in the world.
As we have said before, if there ever comes a day when Steve wants to retire or for other reasons cannot continue to fulfill his duties as Apple’s CEO, you will know it.
Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its Board.
Source: Apple Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: This ought to help the share price of AAPL, at least until the shorts come back with newly-concocted health rumors this summer or until the Uptick Rule is reinstated in order to curtail such manipulation.
The results of a recent MacDailyNews Poll, taken December 30, 2008, are shown at the left.
“If Jobso is still running Apple at year-end, I’ll be shocked.” – Daniel ‘Fake Steve Jobs’ Lyons, July 03, 2008
It’s too bad The Royal Asshole Lyons wasn’t being literal.
Also, with her attempt to nab the “Ill-Timed Article of the Year Award” only 5 days into 2009, none other than the Laura Goldman chimes in this morning with this gem: “Steve Jobs could end the speculation by speaking forthrightly about his health, but that is not Job’s way.”
Whoops.
Well as a physician, I am trying to figure out what this could possibly be. It can’t be as simple as pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy.
@Cubert:
Please, recharge your RDF batteries. It’s sunnier here.
‘Steve Ballmer has just announced he too has got a hormone imbalance.’
Hey Steve…how do you make a hormone?
Don’t pay her….n’yuk n’yuk.
“Also, with her attempt to nab the “Ill-Timed Article of the Year Award” only 5 days into 2009, none other than the Laura Goldman chimes in this morning with this gem: “Steve Jobs could end the speculation by speaking forthrightly about his health, but that is not Job’s way.”
Whoops.”
LOL.. she just keeps bending over and taking it, over and over again. Just like her partner in crime Lyons.
@MacRaven
Why is it that no one is reporting Ballmers own hormone issues. Those manboobs must be annoying when he’s bouncing up and down.
I posted a while back that Steve Jobs passed the keynote duties to Phil Schiller because MacWorld (especially this year) was way too early in the new year calendar, and he wanted to spend time with his family this Christmas and New Years, instead of preparing and rehearsing for the keynote.
As usual, the most likely answer is the correct one.
I have the cure for his Steveness: eat meat!
So many meat-mongers! FWIW, it is possible to be vegetarian and fat. Believe me, I know enough fat vegetarians to say so. For most nutrients, a well-balanced vegetarian diet is FAR MORE nutritious than what most Americans eat. You need to watch B12 and maybe a couple other things.
Judging from the American population’s waistlines, being too thin should not be a major issue of concern for most adults.
Glad to hear Steve’s condition is apparently getting under control.
Although I am incredibly relieved, I am further saddened and disgusted by the constant, endless speculation on his health and succession plan. I remember first posting that opinion in Mac 360 years ago and getting crucified for it. I’d rather Steve work part-time than leave the company. No need for him to burn out, or have him and his family subjected to the constant invasions of privacy and obituaries. I have enough faith in Apple’s awareness of the legality of the situation as well as Steve’s organization that we don’t need to know every last detail of what they’d do if Steve got hit by a truck- the succession plan might not even be subject to change. On a paranoid note, I hope this isn’t just a setup for Steve leaving in late Spring- not so much for health reasons, but the BS he’s been subjected to and a desire for more privacy and family time.
I meant “the succession plan might even be subject to change.”
Also, you get fatter eating a lot of pasta, carbs, and fats than meat. He doesn’t need to become a carnivore like most Americans out there. (Pasta- my own downfall..)
Beef…it’s what’s for dinner!
Gonna have me a steak tonight in Steve’s honor…or maybe just a burger….
Its a good job his malnutrition problem was discovered so quickly and solved so easily, as is the course for this area of diagnoses, as anyone else with a medical degree would know – left untreated its just as lethal as terminal cancer!
Tuesday, September 09
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/18399/
… Apple CEO Steve Jobs attributed his health scare rumors to “unnamed hedge funds” that were shorting Apple stock.
Goldman reported that Jobs told him “there is only so much I can do to reassure investors” and that he is “doing just fine” and is “healthy.”
MacDailyNews Take: Steve: We know you hate wasting time on clothes; hence the uniform, but, seriously, dump the old ill-fitting jeans and black mock turtlenecks and get new jeans and black mock turtlenecks that fit your newfound svelteness. Problem solved.
Monday, January 05
As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.
“Gizmodo can rot.”
Amen. Gizmodo, for lack of a better adverb, sucks.
Jobs is a well-known health food fan. He even scratched the veal entree at an important ‘key buyers’ luncheon. The salad was served, and after that came the dessert. No entree. He was not serving veal. Nice.
The closing sentence of Jobs’ letter, says this:
“So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.” -Steve Jobs
I personally find it odd that the minute a person begins to look gaunt and below a healthy weight, people and the media jump all over it. However, I’d like to take a poll of the number of overweight, heck, obese CEO’s and politicians. All of which the media generally ignore. Obese individuals are at great risk of heart attacks, diabetes and other health ailments, yet the media does not pressure them to confront their health imperfections on a public scale.
I applaud Jobs for communicating his disdain for the pressure-cooker media. I also applaud his hint that he is not going to talk about his health anymore (at least unless it started effecting his work at Apple.)
With Apple selling well over ten million iPhone’s, and still counting, perhaps the media should lay off on the ‘Steve Jobs is dooming Apple.’ stories and stick to the impressive facts on this soaring company.
I posted my thoughts on his health on my blog:
http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2009/01/is-steve-jobs-health-your-business.html
Laura Goldman should do us all a favour . . . . .
. . . . and commit insecticide!
Laura Goldman should commit insecticide . . . . by swatting herself!
I’m glad to hear the good news.
Best wishes to you and your family. Thanks for creating the greatest computers and OS in the world.
MDN says people are full of shit for saying Jobs has health issues. Jobs admits it. MDN tries to put up a smoke screen.
Bravo MDN. I knew you wouldn’t disappoint.
Way to go Kathy!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Excellent comments. You are a tiny voice of reason in a sea of idiocy.
I think that part of the problem is that Apple is “practically perfect in every way.” People don’t like that and always want to find a flaw.
Steve Jobs, as the head of “practically perfect” Apple (no umbrella though), is a giant target and always will be. Especially because Apple is a comeback story and has prevailed against giant odds, and double-especially because it has handed Microsoft it’s ass on a platter lately, people almost *need* Apple to be wrong/doomed etc. on some level.
What better story than to have the messianic leader of the underdog company that is responsible for a large part of the computer revolution come down with some incurable sickness at the height of his power. I almost think that if Steve Jobs wasn’t sick at all, the same story would be floating around the internets anyway cause it’s just so damned perfect of a “fit.”
So in a sense, “Steve Jobs is sick” is more of a necessary myth than it is a fact.
If vegetarianism cause people to be thin, my sister wouldn’t be shaped like a turnip.
If you eat a high carbohydrate, low fiber diet without exercise and eat late at night, chances are high, you’ll gain the wrong kind of weight, fat.
Oh, yeah,
Get well soon Steve!
If Steve’s having HRT treatment to recover from his hormone deficiency, d’ya think he might have ducked-out of giving the Macworld keynote because he’s developing Moobs!?!
(just joking, all you Apple knockers!)
Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors THINK they have found the cause
Steve’s a smart guy, and should have access to the world’s best medicine.
BUT!! I’ve seen too many cases where doctors “thought” they knew the problem, and “treated” it with quackery worse than the illness.
Steve, best wishes. But be careful.