Providing typically spartan detail, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs made a bombshell announcement to employees early Monday morning that he is taking indefinite leave to focus on his health issues.
“Team,
At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
“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.”
The news comes at a time when Apple’s products continue to break sales records and profits are at all time high. Apple is scheduled to release quarterly earnings later today. Jobs made a rare appearance on the last quarterly earnings call with financial analysts to gloat a bit about the company’s performance and tweak competitors.
Cook functioned as acting CEO the last time Jobs took medical leave back in 2009. Datamation reports on what Silicon Valley analyst Tim Bajarin thinks will be the impact of Jobs’ absence on Apple.