Steve Jobs has resigned as the CEO of Apple Inc, yesterday, Wednesday and passed the reins to his right-hand man Tim Cook, saying he could no longer fulfill the duties in a stunning announcement that raised fears his health has deteriorated further.
Jobs, who fought and survived a rare form of pancreatic cancer and revolutionized the technology arena with the iPhone and the iPad in the past four years, is deemed the heart and soul of a company that recently briefly became the most valuable in America.
Jobs, who becomes chairman, said in a brief letter announcing his resignation:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
A college dropout, a Buddhist and a son of adoptive parents, he started Apple Computer with friend Steve Wozniak in the late 1970s.
The company soon introduced the Apple 1 computer. But it was the Apple II that became a huge success and gave Apple its position as a critical player in the then-nascent PC industry, culminating in a 1980 IPO that made Jobs a multimillionaire.
Despite the subsequent success of the Mac, Jobs’ relationship with internal management soured, and in 1985 the board removed most of his powers and he left the company, selling all but one share of his Apple holdings.
Apple’s fortunes waned after that. However, its purchase of NeXT — the computer company Jobs founded after leaving Apple — in 1997 brought him back into the fold. Later that year, he became interim CEO and in 2000, the company dropped “interim” from his title.
“Steve Jobs is the most successful CEO in the U.S. of the last 25 years,” Google Inc Chairman Eric Schmidt said in a statement. “He uniquely combined an artists touch and an engineer’s vision to build an extraordinary company.. one of the greatest American leaders in history.”
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