Apple CEO Steve Jobs to Take Medical Leave

Jan. 17, 2011— -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave of absence from the company, according to an e-mail he sent to all Apple employees today.

"At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company," he said in the letter.

Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, will be responsible for the company's day-to-day operations during his absence, Jobs said in the e-mail.

The e-mail did not specify the medical issue that Jobs is facing and it did not indicate an expected return date. This absence marks the second time in the past few years the 55-year-old CEO has taken leave for medical reasons.

In January 2009, he stunned the technology world when he announced that he would be taking a six-month medical leave. (Cook also took over for Jobs during that absence.)

Famously private, Jobs did not initially disclose the reason for his leave in 2009, but later it was revealed that he had a liver transplant at a Memphis, Tenn., hospital. In 2004, doctors successfully treated Jobs for a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

Click here to see a slideshow of Steve Jobs through the years.

Despite his desire for privacy, the effect of Jobs' health on the well-being of the company has been a hot topic since he appeared at Apple's annual developer's conference in June 2008 looking noticeably gaunt.

Since then, the company's stock price has swung in direct response to news and rumors about the famed CEO's health.

Even though the markets in the U.S. are closed for the Martin Luther King holiday, traders in Europe reacted to news of Jobs' medical leave with strong negativity.

Shares of Apple on the German stock exchange closed down 7.96 percent today, erasing about $25 billion from the company's market share in short order.

Some analysts say that Apple without Jobs may be fine in the near future, thanks to an already established 10-year roadmap for product development. But in the long-term, they say the company could fundamentally change without its hard-driving, innovative founder.

"You get these iconic CEOs, where the company takes on their personality. And once that personality leaves, that company is never the same," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group.