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Storyline: Steve Jobs retires

Aug

2011

03:40

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Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

Tim Cook named as new CEO; Jobs elected Chairman of the Board

By Jason Snell, Macworld.com

Steve Jobs in 2009

After 14 years as Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs resigned his post on Wednesday and was replaced by Tim Cook, who previously was the company's Chief Operating Officer. Jobs, in turn, was elected as chairman of Apple's board of directors.

"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," Jobs said in a letter addressed "to the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community."

"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," Jobs wrote. "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."

"In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration," board member and Genentech chairman Art Levinson said in an Apple press release. “Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company. Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team."

Jobs had been on a medical leave of absence since January 2011. He continued to hold the CEO title while Cook oversaw the day-to-day operations of the company. At the time, Jobs told Apple employees he was taking a leave from his day-to-day duties to “focus on my health.”

“I’m obviously concerned for Steve,” analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies told Macworld. “It’s logical to believe that something’s related to his health.” Bajarin was quick to point out, however, that “he’s still chairman... he’s saying he can’t handle the role of CEO.”

“While I am concerned about Steve personally, I am not concerned about Apple,” Bajarin said. “You’ve got a very deep bench of managers and executives who know how Jobs thinks, feels, and his vision.”

Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg echoed those sentiments, noting that “while this marks the end of an era for Apple, it’s important to remember the there’s more to Apple than any one person, even Steve Jobs. Continuing as chairman Mr. Jobs will continue to leave his mark on both the company and products even as he transfers the reigns to Mr. Cook.”

Jobs is "an icon and what he's done with Apple is something probably unprecedented in business," said IDC analyst Al Hilwa. "It will be a case study in business school books for decades."

Jobs had previously taken a six-month leave of absence from Apple in 2009, ultimately undergoing a liver transplant. He had also battled pancreatic cancer in 2004.

Despite his leave of absence from the company, Jobs had remained involved with Apple’s long-term efforts. He appeared at June’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, handling presentation duties for the section on Apple’s upcoming iCloud service. Jobs also made a surprise appearance at Apple’s iPad 2 press event in March.

Two stints at Apple

Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, along with Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne. With Wozniak, he helped develop the Apple I and Apple II, and, in 1984, introduced the Macintosh to the world. However, he clashed with the company’s CEO, John Sculley, in 1985 and left to found a new company, Next Computer. He also acquired animation company Pixar from filmmaker George Lucas in 1986, later selling it to Disney and becoming a member of the media conglomerate’s board of directors, as well as its largest individual shareholder.

In 1997, Apple acquired Next and Jobs returned to the company to take up the CEO mantle. While Jobs initially served in an interim CEO capacity, replacing ousted chief executive Gil Amelio, he moved into the top role for good in 2000.

During his time at the helm, Apple released a number of groundbreaking products, including the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010. Jobs also presided over a revitalization of the company’s Mac line: Apple introduced its iMac desktop computer in 1998, shortly after his return. Jobs’s return also heralded the end of a pair of prominent but controversial projects, including the licensing of the Mac OS to third-party hardware companies, and the Newton personal digital assistant.

Among Jobs’s other accomplishments as CEO were the launch of the iTunes Music Store in 2003, which went on to become the top music retailer in the U.S. The store, combined with the iconic iPod, popularized the selling of digital music, and later expanded its content to include movies, television shows, podcasts, audiobooks, ebooks, and, of course, apps for Apple’s mobile iOS platform.

Over the course of his tenure, Apple saw unprecedented success, rising from the edge of its demise to become, by some measurements, the most valuable company in the world. That hasn’t always meant popular actions—when Jobs returned in 1997, it was with an influx of $150 million from Microsoft, then considered the company’s arch-rival. But a decade later, the company had become hugely profitable and, as of its most recent financial statements, now sits on a cash reserve of more than $76 billion.

Full text of Jobs's letter

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

[Updated several times throughout the afternoon to add more information, quotes from analysts, and background on Jobs. Macworld editors Dan Moren and Serenity Caldwell and the IDG News Service's Nancy Gohring contributed to this story.]

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Aug

2011

03:39

Steve Jobs's resignation letter

By Macworld Staff

Here is the text of a letter sent by Steve Jobs to Apple employees, as he announced his resignation as Apple’s CEO on Wednesday.

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.

Apple turns to Tim Cook to replace Steve Jobs

By Lex Friedman

Apple's newest CEO has a tough act to follow. But in turning to chief operating officer Tim Cook to replace Steve Jobs in the wake of the latter’s resignation Wednesday, Apple's board of directors has chosen a familiar face with a proven track record with the company.

Cook is no stranger to the spotlight. He's handled the day-to-day CEO duties at Apple since Jobs took a medical leave of absence in January. That marked the third time Cook has overseen the company—he was also interim CEO in 2004 as Jobs underwent treatment for pancreatic cancer and again for the first half of 2009 as Jobs dealt with more health issues.

And now he’s the official CEO. Jobs’s resignation letter refers to an already-in-place succession plan, which was rumored to exist back in July.

Wired once described Tim Cook as “[a] quiet, soft-spoken, low-key executive,” and “the yin to Jobs’s yang.” He’s 50 years old, holds a degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University, and an MBA from Duke University.

Steve Jobs's fierce life and legacy

By Galen Gruman

Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs resigned as CEO from Apple Wednesday, after a remarkable career. (He will continue with Apple as chairman of the board.) Jobs is that rare person who truly has transformed an industry—several times, in fact—and in many ways changed the daily activities of people throughout the world. He is also a controversial man, reviled by many, loved by many, admired by many, and criticized by many.

My own experiences with the man and the company he ran covered that whole range. Whatever people think of him, I believe they can all agree he is fierce: fiercely loyal to his principles and to his friends and close colleagues, fiercely competitive, fierce in his ambitions, fiercely dismissive and belittling to those he does not respect or who he believes are in his way, fiercely stubborn, with a bulldog-like habit of not letting go but instead continuing to persevere for as long as it took (the iPad was a decade-long project, for example).

Famous for the Mac and iPhone, Jobs’s influence has been much deeper than anyone else I can think of in the technology industry—an industry with no shortage of larger-than-life figures who also have made big differences (good and bad), such as Larry Ellison, Philippe Kahn, Scott McNealy, Marc Benioff, Bill Gates, and Carly Fiorina.

Jobs changed the music industry with the iPod, the cellular phone industry with the iPhone, the movie industry with his Pixar Animation Studios films, and the computing industry with the original Mac and then again with Mac OS X and just last year with the iPad. He has been in the middle of doing the same transformation to the publishing industry with his iBooks and media subscription services, and with the software industry with his App Store. Many of the iconic products created under his leadership have become the models for everyone else, creating a demand for high quality, good design, and user-centric products. That’s why when you think smartphone, you think iPhone; when you think tablet, you think iPad; when you think ease of use you think Mac OS X; when you think digital music you think iPod and iTunes; and when you think of family movies you think of “Toy Story” and the rest.

'Operations guy' Tim Cook gets chance to shine

By Agam Shah

Tim Cook launches the Verizon iPhone earlier this year.

With the resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO on Wednesday, Tim Cook, long seen as “the operations guy” at Apple, must prove he is capable of taking full charge of the company.

Cook was viewed by some as a natural successor to Jobs. In his role as chief operating officer, he managed Apple’s worldwide sales and operations, including management of its supply chain, services and support.

Perhaps more importantly, Cook has already had experience running Apple’s day-to-day operations during Jobs’ leaves of absence, including the period from January to the present. But there are questions about his ability to continue the spirit of innovation embodied by Jobs, whose headstrong management style inspired workers, and whose vision kept the company ahead of market trends.

“Steve Jobs has always been the visionary at Apple, and Tim Cook is the operations guy, and he’s good. The problem may come in a couple of years when the company has to see things that can’t be seen today,” said Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.

For sure, Jobs will remain at Apple as chairman, at least for now, and will be involved in design and product decisions as best he can. “Jobs will continue as chairman of [the] board, so you are talking about a guy who will continue to have influence on Apple’s products… for years to come,” said Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg.

Life after Jobs: Why Apple isn't doomed

Steve Jobs has built an Apple that can survive without him as CEO

By Jason Snell

The greatest fallacy in the story of Steve Jobs stepping down as Apple CEO, the one you’ll find in endless media reports, is this: In 1985 after Steve Jobs left Apple, the company went on a downhill slide that led it to the brink of bankruptcy. Therefore, the Apple of 2011 is at risk of doing the same.

The factual statements are true, so far as they go. Steve Jobs did leave Apple in the mid-80s, and a succession of Apple CEOs named Sculley and Spindler and Amelio did manage to nearly run Apple into the ground over the next 12 years.

But the flaw in the History Repeats Itself storyline being promoted in some corners as Jobs steps down as CEO is that the Apple of today is nothing like the Apple of 1985.

When Steve Jobs left Apple the first time, I was finishing my freshman year of high school. As a result, I have no insider knowledge of that era. Eight years later, I was covering Apple… and Apple rapidly went through three CEOs who made numerous bad decisions that led Apple to the brink of disaster. Steve Jobs, meanwhile, was building a company (Next) that had created an interesting computer operating system that was being used by approximately nobody.

The magic happened when Jobs came back to Apple, so when I say that Gil Amelio helped run Apple into the ground, I have to admit that he also made the decision that saved Apple’s life: He bought Next and didn’t just get the foundation of Mac OS X (and eventually iOS)—he also got Steve Jobs.