Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple

The man who cofound­ed Apple and led its remark­able turn­around, begin­ning in the late 1990s, announced this after­noon in a short, plain­ly-word­ed let­ter that he was resign­ing as Apple’s chief exec­u­tive offi­cer, pre­sum­ably due to his health:

To the Apple Board of Direc­tors and the Apple Community: 

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.

I here­by resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chair­man of the Board, direc­tor and Apple employee.

As far as my suc­ces­sor goes, I strong­ly rec­om­mend that we exe­cute our suc­ces­sion plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s bright­est and most inno­v­a­tive days are ahead of it. And I look for­ward to watch­ing and con­tribut­ing to its suc­cess in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work along­side you.

Steve

Jobs has been on indef­i­nite med­ical leave as CEO since Jan­u­ary. Now his leave is per­ma­nent, rather than indefinite.

Apple wast­ed no time in announc­ing the appoint­ment of Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer (COO) Tim Cook as its new CEO. Cook will join Apple’s board imme­di­ate­ly, and Jobs will assume the duties of chair­man, immediately.

No doubt Apple wait­ed until after the close of trad­ing to announce all of these changes so that investors could get digest the news through­out the ear­ly and late evening. Since the board has already act­ed to appoint Cook as CEO and Jobs as Chair­man, there won’t be any uncer­tain­ty about who will be run­ning Apple tomor­row morn­ing. The board is obvi­ous­ly hop­ing to mit­i­gate fears that Apple’s future will not be as bright with­out Jobs run­ning the company.

Still, Apple’s stock was down in after-hours trad­ing:

U.S. stock futures declined after Steve Jobs resigned as chief exec­u­tive offi­cer of Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world’s sec­ond-largest com­pa­ny by mar­ket value.

Stan­dard & Poor’s 500 Index futures lost 0.4 per­cent to 1,167.60 at 6:59 p.m. in New York. Nas­daq-100 Index futures fell 1 per­cent. Apple shares dropped 6.6 per­cent to $351.35. Jobs said he’s resign­ing and rec­om­mend­ed Tim Cook be named his suc­ces­sor. Jobs said he would like to con­tin­ue as chairman.

Apple’s short-term tra­jec­to­ry is unlike­ly to be affect­ed by Jobs’ res­ig­na­tion. Long-term, how­ev­er, the com­pa­ny’s future will become more uncer­tain the eyes of many ana­lysts and investors, because Jobs will not be at the helm micro­manag­ing deci­sions. But if Apple is to sur­vive, it will have to make do with­out Jobs at its helm. Apple’s share­hold­ers and board of direc­tors have always known this.