Editor’s note: This article was first published in February 2011, during Steve Jobs’s medical leave. He resigned as Apple CEO in August 2011 and died in October 2011, so the closing wish for a speedy recovery now reads differently.
As soon as word got out that Steve Jobs had suffered a complication from his pancreatic cancer, Apple shares plunged the next day, wiping more than $1 billion off the company’s value. However, Steve Jobs said he would keep making decisions at the company, which reassured shareholders.
Now the controversial photos have surfaced, showing a visibly frail and “gaunt” Steve Jobs. As soon as they were published, the company received hundreds of calls from stock analysts, brokers and shareholders demanding that Mr Jobs’s health be made public.
Another worrying sign is Steve Jobs’s absence from this Thursday’s meeting with President Barack Obama, which brought together the founders of America’s biggest companies. Rumour has it that he couldn’t attend for health reasons.
For now, the company has refused to discuss its founder’s health, and at the hospital, the medical team treating Steve Jobs hasn’t issued any statement either. If news broke that Jobs might leave Apple for good, there would be a massive sell-off, because investors aren’t betting on the company but on Jobs.
Jobs rescued the computer maker from the brink of death in 1996, after a 12-year absence from the company he himself had founded, and investors haven’t forgotten it. These photos could therefore trigger another drop in Apple’s share price.
We wish Steve the best of luck and a speedy recovery. He has been a born fighter all his life, and we’re confident he won’t stop fighting this illness.
See also: Steve Jobs: the CEO behind the genius, and his dark side
Featured image: Matthew Yohe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
