What is the Current Health of Apple and its Founder? - January 5, 2009

Is Apple Inc. (AAPL) turning sour? In a report released earlier today, the major concerns within the company falls on the health of its founding member, Steve Jobs.

Diagnosed as a hormonal imbalance, doctors confirmed their reviews of the CEO’s tests that the main reason for his unexplained weight loss stems from the imbalance.

“As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors,” Jobs stated. “A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my No. 1 priority.”

“Fortunately, 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. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis,” Jobs went on to add.

Concerns about his health first arose last year, as complications following a surgery in 2004 began to surface.

Another signal of his deteriorating health came last month as Apple announced that Jobs would not make a keynote speech at the Macworld conference held in San Francisco. Macworld, which is run by Apple, is a tech show that features the company’s new and innovated products soon to be released.

At the upcoming conference, Apple has stated that they will not present any new products at the show, but will introduce new applications for updates to their Mac desktops and software programs.

Apple enthusiasts were looking forward to Jobs presenting their newest product, the company’s netbook, a low-cost low-feature laptop computer that could provide substantial sales for the company.

“As software becomes the differentiating technology of this product category, people find that a hundred hardware variations presented to software developers is not very enticing,” Jobs said. “And most companies in this business do not have much experience in a software platform business. We’re extremely comfortable with our product strategy going forward, and we approach it as a software platform company, which is pretty different than most of our competition.”

Within a unique position that Steve Jobs is currently in, there are no other companies that can compare to the overall impact of a founder, or CEO, has on the day-to-day operations of a company. Apple, with mega-sellers such as Mac computers, iPods and iPhones, relies heavily on the perception of their founder to generate positive media relations.

In closing, the company’s board of directors released a statement this morning pertaining to the overall situation of their leader, citing that "Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its Board."

By early afternoon, shares of Apple responding positively to the breaking news, adding nearly 4%, or $3.50, to trade at $94.25 per share. Over the course of several months, the company’s stock has taken a beaten amidst the current financial crisis. From the time the stock hits its 52-week high of $193 a share in late spring, shares of AAPL have slipped more than 51% since then.

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