Apple's Steve Jobs back at work

Apple CEO Steve Jobs briefly addressed his state of health onstage at an Apple event last October.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News)

After taking a medical leave of absence in January, Steve Jobs on Monday officially resumed his work as CEO of Apple.

"Steve is back to work," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling, told Bloomberg News. Jobs will be working at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., "a few days a week" and working from home on the rest, according to the report.

Jobs initially was said to be taking a break from work to focus on recuperating from a hormone imbalance. But in April he received a liver transplant from a hospital in Tennessee. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook handled the day-to-day duties of running Apple in Jobs' absence. Meanwhile, Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller filled in for Jobs as keynote speaker at Apple's product events and, most recently, the Worldwide Developer Conference.

During his absence, the company Jobs founded didn't seem to miss a beat. Apple released both the latest update to the iPhone operating system, as well as the new iPhone 3GS hardware, and the stock soared from $85.33 the day he announced his temporary leave to close at $142.44 on Friday.

[savvydude]

Welcome back, Steve. It just isn't the same when you aren't there. Can't wait to see what amazing things you developed while gone!

[lil-yankee]

probably a digital liver, the dude was sick! wth

[Seaspray0]

When I return back to work from vacation, there's always a stack of papers to catch up on. Jobs is bound to have a big one after this long.

[CreativeMalcolm]

Steve has come up with a new idea... the iLiver which prevents cancer, makes your breath minty fresh, and as an added undocumented feature will corrupt Windows 7 installations when in close proximity.

[Sporlo]

someone needs to make a site where everyone can post their iDeas. Think of an iThing and post it on a site. Perhaps similar in structure to fmls, where people can vote and comment on the worst and best iDeas. CNET is already filled with them.

[ckh1272]

"by CreativeMalcolm June 29, 2009 11:22 AM PDT
Steve has come up with a new idea... the iLiver which prevents cancer, makes your breath minty fresh, and as an added undocumented feature will corrupt Windows 7 installations when in close proximity."

That was so creative. Did you come up with that all by yourself? <sarcasm>

[Vegaman_Dan]

The SEC and investors all want to know what his health condition truly is at this point. Apple needs to address this soon or face loss of confidence in the company's public image by investors and the public at large. The media is having a field day with the secretive nature of the company, and the easiest way to shut them all up is to just disclose the condition of the leader himself. Failure to do so or refusal just makes the situation worse at this point.

Please just take a physical, release the information, and shut all these news rumor mongers up once and for all so we can get past this issue.

[puterhead]

Why? What does he or the board care if there are a a hundred articles a day about the subject? Free puplicity for the company which is a plus all the way around. I really don't think they care one way or the other about the analyst or what the E-trade members think or want as long as they are selling a million phone in a week and sitting on piles on cash.

As for the SEC, if there is a specific rule that they aren't adhering to i am sure they be told to get in line, or if they are doing everything that is legally required they will keep on doing it no matter what anyones opinion is.

[Been_there_Saw_it_before]

Steve's health is Steve's business, not the media's, not yours, and not mine. If the board of directors has a confidence issue, they can get another CEO. If the investors have a confidence issue, they can express their opinion to the board or sell their stock. The media will twist and spin the issue in order to create a buzz, regardless of facts and official statements.

If you think Steve should disclose all his health issues, you do the same first and set an example.

[Vegaman_Dan]

@Been_there_Saw_it_before:

"If you think Steve should disclose all his health issues, you do the same first and set an example. "

Excellent point indeed, and one I have met before when asked.

I have a slight head cold, a case of the sniffles. My yearly physical has no issues to report- I'm quite healthy and do not see any reason why this should impact my job performance in any way.

There. Done. I met your criteria. :)

Now then, as I was saying, it doesn't really matter if anyone feels that Apple should give out this information or not. The perception that Apple is giving is that they are being secretive and covering up something as a result. THIS is what they need to address.

Apple already made it it an issue when they included it in the keynote some time back- heck, look at the graphicfor this story itself. When Apple acknowledges the issue and then continues to be quiet about it, playing it off that there is no problem at all, that he's perfectly healthy, etc, then it turns out he's actually so ill as to require major transplant surgery... well, you can see that the public perception is that of deception. That's what the SEC is going after Apple for. That's the sort of thing that makes you wonder if Apple is willing to try to coverup for their CEO's health condition, what else are they covering up?

And it's easy to simply come out with a public disclosure. Do that, and the media has nothing to work with and the story goes away. If you don't, then that just feeds the flames.

It's Apple's call.

[jerrymacGP]

Mr. Jobs' health is nobody's business but his. Every individual has an unfettered right to maintain the confidentiality of his or her own health information, except in very limited circumstances that are defined by law (for example, notifiable communicable diseases). In the United States, this is guaranteed by a federal statute called HIPAA; in Canada, by similar legislation in every province & territory. Furthermore, health care professionals (I am a Registered Nurse) and facilities that divulge the personal health information of clients without their consent face heavy fines and possible loss of their professional license to practice. Investors and others have no right to this knowledge, only the right to know if a principal of a company is able to carry out his/her duties.

[jcmark42]

That's amazing that someone's health can affect the stock value so much. I wonder how Steve feels about that. He won't be around forever.....what will happen to Apple stock then?

[CrashPad63]

Wont matter, company takes a swan dive in 2012 anyway. Going to as bad as the first time around. You can only fool folks for so long.

[ikramerica--2008]

Wow, bold prediction. 3 years off, so nobody will remember, with no reason to back it up other than customers are a bunch of fools.

[HeavyJim]

"by ikramerica--2008 June 29, 2009 4:23 PM PDT
Wow, bold prediction. 3 years off, so nobody will remember, with no reason to back it up other than customers are a bunch of fools."

Is he saying apple customers are fools? lmao

[Seaspray0]

He's a customer so I guess he resembles that remark.

[andy_ston]

I think the guys at Apple have already proved they can run things pretty smoothly without Jobs.

[Dani210]

that is true, see that's the thing. i think the company runs fine without jobs, but it runs better when jobs presents a new product himself (keynotes, etc.). However, jobs was still working partially when he was away. I'm not sure if you guys know, but Apple is a technological company and Jobs is the CEO, so he knows how to use email.