Even as Apple reports massive amounts of revenue and profits in its last financial quarter, there is one big question about the company: the health of its founder and CEO Steve Jobs. Officially Jobs went on medical leave last winter for vague reasons and while he has made public appearances since then he is not completely involved in the day-to-day operations. Now, its looks like some of of Apple's board of directors have started very preliminary investigations about looking for a possible successor to Jobs.
According to the Wall Street Journal, using unnamed sources, members of Apple's board have started talking with executive recruiters about a possible CEO successor. It also reports that at least one unnamed leader of a "high-profile technology company" has also been approached as well. The story claims that these talks were "more of an informal exploration of the company's options". In fact these talks may have been made without the full board's support. It even suggests that Jobs himself may not have been aware of the action of this select group of board members. Jobs himself responded to the story in an email by saying, "I think it's hogwash." An official spokesperson for Apple did not comment.
While Apple has been highly successful for the most part, at least in terms of earnings, in the past several years, some stockholders in the company have worried what would happen if Jobs were to depart as CEO. Indeed, the story states that in February "a shareholder proposal asking Apple to disclose its succession plan was defeated at the company's annual meeting."
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