Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs Health Under Scrutiny, Takes Another Medical Leave of Absence

For the second time in two years, Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs will take another leave of absence, generating concerns over his state of health and the severity of his condition.

Jobs has battled pancreatic cancer in the past, and in 2009 he underwent a liver transplant. It's unknown if his current health issues are related to complications of the liver transplant or a new health problem he has to deal with.

Announcing it a day before the companies' expected blowout earnings report suggest something serious Jobs is facing.

No specifics of Jobs' decision were released, and along with uncertainty as to what is wrong, the length of time he'll be on leave wasn't addressed either.

Jobs said COO Tim Cook will take over daily operations while he will remain CEO, remaining involved with major decisions related to the company.

While nobody can replace Jobs, the one positive if it's a dire situation for Apple, is the pipeline for the next couple of years is filled, and execution of the strategy shouldn't be a problem whether Jobs is at the helm on a daily basis or not.

Also to be considered is how much of that pipeline under the assumption of a Jobs leadership is already priced into the stock of the company.

Apple will probably fall in early trading, and rebound after the earnings report is released.

From there it's anyone's guess as to where the share price will go and how much the market prices into the shares in connection with Jobs. More than likely it's significant, and it could be determined by how much Jobs allows to be released to the public.

Either way, what was extremely clear for Apple just a couple of days ago has suddenly become very murky.

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