Steve Jobs back at work at Apple: reports
Last Updated: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 | 10:22 AM ET
CBC News
Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who has been on a leave of absence since January for undisclosed medical reasons, has reportedly been spotted back at the company's California offices, fuelling speculation the influential executive is ready to return to work.
Reports from Reuters and CNBC said Jobs was seen at Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus on Monday, the same day Jobs issued his first statement since going on his leave of absence.
"Customers are voting, and the iPhone is winning," Jobs said in the statement about the latest version of the iPhone selling one million units over the weekend.
Few executives are as identifiable and inseparable with their company's identity as Jobs, who started Apple in 1976 as a computer company and left in the 1980s before returning in 1996 and transforming it into a consumer electronics company, a transition exemplified first by the iPod digital music player and later the iPhone.
Jobs's health has been a source of almost daily speculation on the part of investors, analysts and the media, particularly because of both his influence on the company's creative direction and the company's unwillingness to go into detail regarding his condition.
Apple's stock has fluctuated along with reports about Jobs's health since 2004, when investors first learned that he was battling pancreatic cancer.
On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jobs had a liver transplant two months ago in Tennessee and that he will likely work part-time, at least in the beginning. Apple has not commented on the report.
