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"Members of Apple\u2019s board talked to executive recruiters and at least one \u201Chead of a high-profile technology company\u201D to succeed CEO Steve Jobs, according to a report.\nThe conversations, which \u201Cweren\u2019t explicitly aimed at recruiting a new chief executive and were more of an informal exploration of the company\u2019s options,\u201D took place when Jobs went on medical leave earlier this year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Apple\u2019s board has seven directors, including Jobs. It appears the directors who made the inquiries were not acting on the full board's behalf, the report says.\nIt's not clear whether Jobs was aware of any of this. When The Wall Street Journal emailed Jobs, he replied, \u201CI think it\u2019s hogwash.\u201D\nJobs took a leave of absence from Apple \u2014 his second in two years \u2014 on January 17. In a memo to his staff, Jobs said he was taking the leave to \u201Cfocus on his health.\u201D Jobs said he would \u201Ccontinue as CEO and to be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.\u201D\nThough Jobs didn\u2019t disclose the nature of his health problems, The Wall Street Journal revealed in 2009 that the first leave of absence was for a liver transplant. Since announcing the leave of absence, Jobs has appeared in public several times, most notably to deliver the keynote at WWDC 2011 in early June. Mashable's live blog of the event noted that Jobs was \u201Clooking thinner than ever, but sounding strong.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/07/19/apple-board-steve-jobs-replacement-2/>