Jobs Leaving Apple Due To Health

Confirming the worst fear of many Apple stockholders, yesterday Steve Jobs announced that he was taking a medical leave from the company.

Casting a pall over one of the world’s most closely watched companies, Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, said on Wednesday that he was taking a leave of absence because of health concerns. Timothy Cook, left, chief operating officer at Apple, and Philip Schiller, a senior vice president, at the Macworld conference last week. Mr. Cook will now handle day-to-day operations. Mr. Jobs wrote in a letter to Apple employees, released after the markets closed, that he had learned over the last week that his health problems were “more complex” than he originally thought. He said he planned to return to Apple at the end of June and in the meantime would hand day-to-day control of Apple over to Timothy D. Cook, its longtime chief operating officer. Mr. Jobs, 53, wrote that curiosity about his health continued “to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well.” He said he would maintain the chief executive title and stay involved in major strategic decisions. Mr. Jobs’s leave of absence is the latest twist in a story that has left the company’s shareholders, analysts and ardent fans exasperated and straining to divine any hidden meanings in the company’s vaguely worded communications.

Apple stock is diving on the news in markets worldwide.