The Last Day

Peter Burrows and Josh Tyrangiel, reporting for Businessweek:

On the day of the announcement, a person close to Jobs who was not authorized to speak about his health said the outgoing CEO was in Apple’s Cupertino (Calif.) office for the entire workday and attended a regularly scheduled board meeting. This person described Jobs’s condition as weak but added that his resignation was not indicative of a sudden downturn and that Jobs, while housebound in recent weeks, was up and about. Jobs gathered his senior executive team in an emotional meeting after the news broke. He also made clear he plans to be an active chairman, according to another source familiar with the transition.

What a meeting that must have been.

The market reaction was instantaneous: Apple shares fell as much as 7 percent in extended trading after the announcement.

But as of this moment, the stock is down just 1 percent, only slightly worse than the S&P 500 overall for the day.

★ Thursday, 25 August 2011