At approximately 7pm this evening I observe a few tweets in the stream noting that Steve Jobs had resigned as CEO of Apple. In a letter available on Apple’s site addressed to the Apple community from Mr. Jobs he did indeed resign from the position he has held for 14 years.
The press release also available on Apple’s site further explains that Tim Cook has been named as CEO with Jobs being elected to Chairman of the board. For those who have had their heads buried in the sand for the last few months Mr. Cook was the COO and has been over seeing the day to day operations since Jobs took his leave of absence back in January.
Neither of the two official documents explain in much detail exactly what prompted the resignation but Yahoo! news seemed to shed some light on the reason behind the decision. According to y!news Mr. Jobs is a pancreatic cancer survivor. For those of you who are unaware my family has been directly touched by this insidious disease as my own mother died just eleven days after being diagnosed with it. Therefore is it my sincere feeling that Jobs’ recovery is not as rosy as it was once portrayed.
Although I sincerely hope that my feeling is incorrect; yet if it were I doubt he would be unable to continue his duties as CEO as his letter to the community states. In either case regardless of the situation that has prompt his resignation I hope that he and his family enjoy his new freedom from manning the helm.
Obviously Jobs has done exactly what is best for the company and I believe that he and the rest of the team at the company have plotted a detailed plan to guide the company forward for at least the next year. At this point the stock may have slipped a few points, I believe with Jobs be designated as CoB there is a good chance that it will rebound. I am certain this was a moved aimed as stock holders to give them some comfort that the transition will not be cold turkey.
Regardless of the near term I hope that Mr. Cook does a bang up job filling some seriously huge shoes.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mikel King has been a leader in the Information Technology Services field for over 20 years. He is currently the CEO of Olivent Technologies, a professional creative services partnership in NY. Additionally he is currently serving as the Secretary of the BSD Certification group as well as a Senior Editor for the BSD News Network and JAFDIP.
Related articles
- Jobs Steps Down at Apple, Saying He Can’t Meet Duties – New York Times (news.google.com)
- Steve Job RESIGNS AS CEO! What does this mean for the fate of Apple? (urbanindiebrownchick.wordpress.com)
- Steve Jobs Resigns: A History In Links (paidcontent.org)
- Steve Jobs resigns from Apple, Cook becomes CEO – chicagotribune.com (mbcalyn.wordpress.com)
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