

Apple: Jobs to Take Medical Leave of Absence - bootload
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/01/14/apple-jobs-to-take-medical-leave-of-absence/

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froo
I'm going down the list reading a lot of the comments and there doesn't seem
to be too many wanting Steve to get well soon.

So from 1 hacker to Steve, we wish you get better soon mate.

~~~
lhorie
Is it just my impression or has Steve Jobs become some sort of Britney Spears
of the techie world?

Just the fact that this sort of gossipy news appears everywhere dones't bother
me that much (that's media for you), but I wish people would stop their silly
speculations about corporate implication and just let the man rest, like he's
asking for. This isn't the National Enquirer...

Hope he gets well, being sick sucks :/

~~~
lallysingh
Agreed. Frankly I think the man's contributed more than his fair share as is.
He doesn't owe anybody anything. My guess to his sharing his medical status is
more to protect the share value for the other people on his team, whose
incomes may depend on it.

I hope the best for him.

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answerly
Just terrible news and so unfortunate that it has to play out this way. I
can't imagine how difficult it must be to have to deal with a (seemingly)
serious medical issue and have to justify every related move to the public.

~~~
Alex3917
What's more terrible and unfortunate is the fact that not only is this the top
story on CNN and Google News, but today's supreme court decision doesn't even
make it onto either page. Not even below the fold.

~~~
jfornear
This shouldn't be surprising at all. Priority in news is not determined by
what we might consider to be of real or objective importance.

~~~
brandnewlow
How many people in the audience that advertisers care about would be affected
by Apple tanking?

A lot.

How many people that advertisers care about would be affected by new police
evidence rules?

Nowhere near as many.

Seems pretty cut and dried. If advertisers pay the bills you write to the
audience they're interested in.

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inovica
Stock, stock, stock. Thats what most people are talking about. I saddens me
that this guy is obviously seriously ill and all that people can first think
about is the stock price. Personally I wish him the very best of luck with
whatever his medical condition is. Without his input into the world of
computing (despite the negatives that he allegedly has) we would live in a
different world to the one we now have. He was there from the very beginning
of the personal computer revolution and I have a lot of respect for him. Above
all though he's a human being and both he and his family must be going through
a lot at the moment. My wishes are with them and hope that he recovers.

Oh, and I own Apple stock too

~~~
MikeCapone
If you really care about sick people and dying people, donate to the
Methuselah Foundation (google it, or Aubrey de Grey). 150,000 people die of
aging-related diseases every _day_ , and almost nobody is working on curing
that.

~~~
Robin_Message
I'd say if you care about sick and dying people, you should donate money to
Medecins Sans Frontiers* or another development charity. Simple, basic medical
care is much cheaper than trying to prolong life (per person) so you will be
helping more people, often children who have full lives ahead of them.

*<http://www.msf.org/>

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fuzzmeister
Hope he gets better soon, can't imagine how frustrated such a work-oriented
person must feel about being out of commission.

On another note, might be a good idea to buy AAPL in a few days. Long-term, I
think Apple will succeed, with or without Jobs at the helm, but it's sure as
hell going to be down over the next few days.

~~~
numair
"...Long-term, I think Apple will succeed, with or without Jobs at the
helm..."

You obviously weren't with us in the 90s.

~~~
Zev
How Steve was outed in the 80's is far different then how he would leave if he
had to leave today. In the 80's, he was forcibly removed from his position and
couldn't set anything up. Today? Apple has people like Schiller, Ive and Cook
- all more then capable - to run things.

//edit: Fixed the dates. Thanks for pointing it out. And yes, I did typo twice
><

~~~
bonaldi
Schiller and Ive were both there during the dark days. Ive designed the Newton
and the Performa.

The thing about Jobs is he can marshall talent in a way that really drives
technical staff nuts at the time, but delights them with the results. Other
boards give the technical people their heads, and then you end up with OpenDoc
and Taligent. God knows who can replace that. Gassée couldn't.

~~~
Zev
_Schiller and Ive were both there during the dark days._

Were they at Apple in the same positions as they are in today?

~~~
bonaldi
Schiller wasn't, he was medium-level in marketing; but Ive was fairly senior.
His team were churning out great designs -- there's a book called AppleDesign
that showcases the work, the majority of which didn't make it into production
because Apple simply didn't know what it had.

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mdasen
I don't think this will change anything big. A leader is important to a
company, but a leader needs to be able to create the kind of culture that runs
itself when they're away. I'm guessing that Jobs did a good job of instilling
the culture that Apple has today in a way that will continue because of how
the workers see themselves and the company. It's sad to see him undergoing
such medical problems and I wish him a speedy recovery, but I think Apple will
do fine without him because he's given them purpose and direction and a
definition that lasts beyond him.

I'm sure we all wish you a speedy recovery and many years of health!

------
Alex3917
It looks like Fred Wilson got out while the getting was good:

<http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/01/selling-apple-a.html>

~~~
tlrobinson
AAPL peaked at $200 a year ago. Should have sold _then_ :(

------
jws
It is now about 30 minutes after this broke, there are 10 articles about it
posted to Hacker News.

My take is that it will have a good couple of days of news cycle, but
ultimately isn't that important to anyone but Steve Jobs, his family, and
friends.[1]

The key of Jobs at Apple is that he demonstrated a "different way". The Scully
years were about performing business: perform incremental improvement, manage
costs, and earn a return on investment. The return of Jobs was the proposition
that the company could [also|instead] succeed by fostering a reputation for
quality of user experience and changing the product landscape to make new
opportunities[2]. That proposition is now proven, there is a generation of
leaders (and lead) in the company that know this and believe it.

They should get along just fine.

What they will lose is the "star power" of Jobs and all the easy copy that
media companies could generate based on that. That will hurt, less media
coverage is not good, particularly since Apple is going to suffer though a
massive salvo of easy FUD articles.

[1] if he has a family, he may just have an antiseptic white ceramic dwelling
staffed by obedient Eve clones for all I know.

[2] also, break some eggs if you are making an omelette.

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sspencer
It's on Reuters now, too.

Clever of them to wait until after the closing bell, but man oh man, that
stock is going to plummet tomorrow, I imagine.

Hope he's all right...

~~~
sachinag
They actually had to halt trading; they couldn't hold it til the bell, for
some reason.

~~~
gravitycop
The news was released after the bell. It was halted in after-hours trading.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=434426>

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ssharp
My prediction: I'll make a better % gain being short on PALM's inflated price
post-CES then these AAPL shorters will. Apple is still an extremely strong
company with lots of growth potential still left in the computer and phone
markets. I'm sure there is money to made with these short term bets but I
thought AAPL was bargain at the 85 close today, let alone what it drops to.

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swombat
Cool. So I guess the best bet is to wait till the stock drops artificially
tomorrow and then buy buy buy!

~~~
mattmaroon
Yeah actually. I've got a few put contracts I'm going to dump. I've been
betting against Jobs's health for a while. Plan B all along has been to go
long after that happened. He's just not as important to that company as the
market believes, because no man is that good.

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kyofiyfi
All the news cares about is AAPL and not Apple or Jobs The Human. I'm not
surprised -- and no one should -- because it all fundamentally comes down to
money. The people in charge care about money and I'm sure Jobs knows this.
He's already probably dead to the investors anyways. Only hackers or other
ancillary types (in the grand scheme of things) care about innovation or the
tech behind it. So save your tears for Woz's wake.

------
gravitycop
_US STOCKS-Futures fall on Apple news on CEO's medical leave_
[http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN14482585200901...](http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN1448258520090114)

 _Nasdaq stock index futures fell as much as 16 points. Apple shares were
halted in after-hours._

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TomOfTTB
Simple question for those who think there's more to Jobs' sickness...

Imagine you're a millionaire hundreds of times over. You get a sickness that
makes you tired, causes your hair to fall out and results in you not
necessarily being able to control your bladder. Wouldn't you take a few months
off?

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bootload
_"... Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple
employees ..."_

Don't see anything on the Apple pr site yet ~
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/> So it's unconfirmed.

~~~
MrRage
It's there now: <http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/14advisory.html>

~~~
bootload
_"... It's there now ..."_

Thats what I'm looking for, Apple confirmation.

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jaspertheghost
I hate to say it, but Apple's a company that's highly dependent on its CEO. It
doesn't seem like it's a company that's very dependent on its talent, so if
the "dictator with taste" steps down, I believe Apple is not going to be in
for a great time.

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Zev
People need time off. Can we (as a culture) move on?

/edit: to expand: Mainly saying this because it's _not_ the first time Jobs
has stepped down due to health reasons.

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mattmaroon
Time to sell those puts.

~~~
steveplace
If you're going to get into options, you can sell a bullish straddle, but that
assumes that the share price won't go back to its highs (a fair assumption).

Selling put verticals would work too as it limits your risk.

Actually selling puts is going to depend on what the implied volatility looks
like on the open.

Of course I'll be on my blog and stocktwits talking about it at 935 tomorow.

~~~
mattmaroon
No, I meant sell put contracts I had already purchased. I'm not that brave.

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herdrick
This is awful.

In retrospect Jobs' hormone explanation for his weight loss looks like self-
delusion. But I wanted to believe, too.

Hope everyone on HN is doing OK.

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augustus
Not good.

~~~
tlrobinson
It's certainly not good for Jobs that his health is declining, and may not be
good for AAPL in the short term, but it gives Apple the opportunity to prove
that Apple != Steve Jobs. If Apple can continue to kick ass for 6 months while
he's gone, it indicates that Apple may do just fine once he's gone
permanently.

Of course, 6 months may not be long enough to really tell. There's also the
possibility that he really is dying and they're hiding it, or he simply plans
to permanently retire, and they're just "easing" investors into the idea of an
Apple without Steve Jobs. I hope neither is the case, especially the former.

~~~
jedc
Completely agree. The truly big test for Apple would really come 12-18 months
after Steve's departure, when the product development pipeline matures. If
they're able to keep the same "magic" with or without Steve, then it proves
that he built Apple's success into their culture.

~~~
otto
Historically that has not been the case though. In the short run it probably
will not be much of an issue for Apple as there is not a huge shift in
management.

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jamesjyu
You hear that? That's the sound of a million people ready to dump the stock
tomorrow.

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11ren
I like Steve. I hope he's OK.

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steveplace
What's the over/under on a shareholder lawsuit?

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mootymoots
I'd be surprised if its untrue...

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time_management
I really hope he's alright. This is unfortunate, but I think the press is
overreacting by automatically assuming the worst.

It's not shocking that a 53-year-old man would suffer a health crisis
requiring a 5-month reprieve from work. He's a cancer survivor (and cancer
treatment side effects often persist for years) with a hormonal imbalance. It
sounds like he's doing the smart thing.

Part of why I think this is major news is that, unfortunately, a lot of people
have health crises that merit or require half-year career breaks. I've seen a
lot of people work through illnesses that really deserved time off, especially
when I worked on a trading floor. It sucks that most people can't take breaks
when they need to; in his case, it leads to a billion-dollar drop in his
company's market cap.

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sabat
Horrible news. Worse, the SEC is likely to come after him if it turns out (as
we all probably think it will) that he's facing another round of cancer
treatment. Now he's facing legal action as well, by publicly denying he has
cancer.

~~~
steveplace
I'm betting on a investor lawsuit over the SEC. If they knowingly misled their
shareholders they're in for a world of hurt.

~~~
mattmcknight
That's certainly what most people on CNBC were pulling for tonight.

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weegee
I hope Steve gets well soon. I'm afraid if he leaves Apple again, we'll see a
repeat of the slow slide they experienced from 1985-1998.

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sabat
FWIW, the NYT is now reporting that inside sources are confirming that Jobs'
problem has to do with nutrient absorption, not cancer.

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TweedHeads
Expect a new iPhone, MacBooks and iMacs by the end of june

And one more thing ;-)

------
nikils
is it time to start working on androind instead of iphone ?

