What could possibly cause a five percent drop in Apple’s share? An absent Steve Jobs, of course. After all, there’s no other executive in tech that so fully personifies the company he runs. When the company dumped Jobs in the mid-80s, after a disagreement with then-CEO John Sculley, the company nearly collapsed.
And then, of course, there’s the fact that Jobs had taken a leave in the past due to cancer–a word that has come up an awful lot in the wake of this weekend’s announcement that he will be taking another temporary creak.
As with last time, COO Tim Cook will be manning the ship. Said Jobs in a statement that went out over the weekend,
At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011,” Jobs continued. “I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.
Questions surrounding Jobs’s health–and Cook’s seemingly eventual rise to the company’s top position–surfaced again last week, when the COO appeared on stage with Verizon executives to announce the long awaited appearance of the iPhone on that carrier, a role most assumed would have been filed by Jobs.
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