Apple CEO Steve Jobs was forced to take a six-month medical leave following an ailment “preventing his body from absorbing food,” the New York Times reported online Wednesday.
The report, citing medical experts with knowledge of Jobs’ health, told the newspaper the founder of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company was not leaving due to a reappearance of pancreatic cancer which sidelined the Jobs in 2004.
Medical experts also told the executive to reduce stress, a factor that could inflame the illness, according to the Times.
In a letter Wednesday to employees, Jobs said what initially was described as a “hormonal imbalance” had become “more complex” and he was leaving the limelight of speculation until June. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief of operations, was named interim CEO.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
