SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)—Steve Jobs, Apple Computer Inc.s charismatic co-founder and chief executive, said Sunday he had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas.
In an e-mail message to employees, he said he will be off to recuperate during August and expects to return to work in September.
He identified his cancer as an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, which he described as rare and said could be cured by surgical removal if diagnosed early. He said his was caught early.
A far more deadly—and common form—of pancreatic cancer is adenocariconoma, he said.
“I mention this because when one hears pancreatic cancer (or Googles it), one immediately encounters this far more common and deadly form, which, thank God, is not what I had,” he said in the message.
During Jobs absence, Apple will be run by Timothy Cook, the companys executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations.
Jobs and friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer in 1976, five years before IBM Corp. jumped into the personal computer market.
In 1984, the company released the Macintosh, which was the first computer to have a graphical user interface that mimicked a physical desktop. It was eventually copied by makers of IBM-clone computers.
Jobs is also chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios, which produced “Finding Nemo” and “Toy Story.”