“Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs took a leave of absence as a rare form of cancer he’s been battling since 2004 and a more recent liver transplant worsened his health, a person with knowledge of the matter said,” Adam Satariano, Peter Burrows and Joseph Galante report for Bloomberg. “Jobs has been unable to keep on weight as he undergoes treatment, said the person, who requested anonymity because the matter is private.”
MacDailyNews Take: Make that “was.”
Satariano, Burrows and Galante report, “The announcement that Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will handle day-to-day operations came yesterday, preceding the first-quarter earnings report due at today’s market close. Apple is projected to report profit of $5.39 a share on sales of $24.4 billion, the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. ‘2011 is already in the bag,’ said Michael Binger, a fund manager at Thrivent Asset Management, which holds Apple stock. ‘My guess is it’ll be a blowout.'”
“For the past few weeks, Jobs had been coming into the office once or twice a week, and has been susceptible to colds and flu because of his weak health, the person familiar said,” Satariano, Burrows and Galante report. “A former employee who saw Jobs in the past two months said the executive looked thin. Still, yesterday’s announcement came as a surprise to some senior managers who had grown accustomed to Jobs’s unpredictable work schedule, according to a manager at a company that does business with Apple.”
“‘Apple missed an opportunity to hand the day-to-day responsibility to another executive’ earlier on, with Jobs focusing on broader ideas and design while taking care of his health, Michael Obuchowski, chief investment officer at First Empire Asset Management in Hauppage, New York, said in an e- mail,” Satariano, Burrows and Galante report. “‘I am worried that the current decision to keep Steve Jobs as CEO is another mistake.'”
Satariano, Burrows and Galante report, “Jobs disclosed he was taking time off on Jan. 14, 2009, and Apple announced he was back at work on June 29 that year. From Jan. 15 until his return, the shares rose 70 percent.”
Full article here.