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Published 17:42, January the 14th, 2009
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Apple CEO Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave Through June


Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, who said this month that he is being treated for a nutritional ailment, will take a medical leave of absence through the end of June. The shares fell 10 percent.

Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook will take over Apple ’s day-to- day operations, the Cupertino, California-based company said Wednesday in a statement. Jobs said he will remain involved in major strategic decisions.

“During the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought,” Jobs said in the statement. “In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence.”

Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976, returned as CEO in 1997 and transformed the money-losing maker of Macintosh computers. His focus on design and simple-to-use gadgets won over millions of buyers, turning Apple ’s iPod media player and iPhone into best sellers. Jobs, who had successful surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004, appeared thinner at Apple events last year.

“With the markets already nervous, a visionary founder and leader of a company taking a leave of absence is not good news,” said Romeo Dator, a portfolio manager for U.S. Global Investors Inc. in San Antonio. He helps oversee about $100 million, including Apple shares. “The part I find most troublesome is the health issues being more complex than they thought at first.”

The shares closed at $85.33 Wednesday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading.

Apple spokesman Steve Dowling declined to comment and said Cook and Apple ’s board members aren’t available for interviews.

Jobs said this month that he is suffering from a nutritional ailment and that he planned to remain Apple ’s CEO during his treatment.

“I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors,” Jobs, who turns 54 in February, said earlier this month. “After further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been ‘robbing’ me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy.”

Although he has started treatment, Jobs said his doctors advised him that it may take until at least late spring to regain weight.

Speculation about Jobs’s health resurfaced in June after he appeared thinner at Apple ’s conference for developers. The company said at the time that he was suffering from a “common bug” and declined to discuss his health, saying it was a private matter. The speculation persisted as he continued to appear frail at company events later in the year, and investors responded by punishing the shares with each new report of Jobs’s ill health.

Last month, Apple said Jobs wouldn’t deliver the keynote address at the Macworld Expo conference in San Francisco --ending an 11-year run and renewing speculation about his health. Jobs, wearing his trademark black turtleneck sweater and blue jeans, has used the Macworld show to unveil new products, including the iPhone in 2007. Jobs didn’t appear at the show.

Cook first came up as a possible heir to Jobs in 2004 when he led Apple during Jobs’s monthlong leave to recuperate from cancer surgery. His position as Jobs’s second-in-command was cemented in November 2005, when he was promoted to operating chief .

Bloomberg