Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, has chosen to step down from his post as CEO of the company.  The former Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook will be succeeding Jobs as CEO.  Jobs resigned in a letter to Apple's board of directors stating, "I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know.  Unfortunately, that day has come."  In that same letter, Jobs stated that his desire was to remain as chairman of the board.
Steve Jobs has been fighting pancreatic cancer since 2004 and has been on medical leave since January of this year.  This was Jobs' third period of medical leave.  He briefly made an appearance in March and June to unveil the iPad 2 and the iCloud, an online cloud computing service.  In part of his resignation, Jobs left this farewell, "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."
—Art Levinson, New York TimesTim Cook was personally recommended by Jobs to take over as CEO and has been serving as interim CEO since the beginning of Jobs' medical leave.  Before his post at Apple, Cook held positions at IBM and Compaq.  He is known for staying out of the spotlight.  Due to an operational overhaul by Cook, he is credited with the success of the iPad and MacBook Air.  He also stood in Steve Jobs' place while the CEO underwent liver transplant surgery.  He received $59 million for his performance in the position.
—Richard Doherty, USA TodayAnalyst Charles Golvin predicts that the resignation will not begin to affect Apple performance for 1.5 to 2 years.  Many of the new products are already under development and Jobs will continue to steer the company from his position as chairman of the board.  Art Levinson, chairman of Genentech and a member of the board, adds, "Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration".  A contrary view is offered by Charles O'Reilly, a management expert at Stanford University, who stated, "Great companies rarely go from strength to strength".  Richard Doherty attributes Steve Jobs' success as the ability to hold off on a product until it is perfect.  He states "A lot of products could have gotten to market earlier, but he wanted it better."
In light of the revelation, Apple shares (AAPL) slid $19.37 in after hours trading—a drop of over 5%.  Since market open, Apple shares rose to $373.72, a drop of only $2.46 since Wednesday's close.

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Apple executive Steve Jobs resigns