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>> So we now know the reason behind Steve Jobs weight loss. It has nothing to do with cancer. It's a hormone imbalance. Welcome to the CNET News Daily Debrief, I'm Charlie Cooper here with my colleague Tom Krazit and the early morning shocker, Apple, very brief statement, Steve Jobs and a little bit more detailed, but still very lapidary. He says that the issue that's caused so much speculation the last several months, a hormone imbalance. What do we know about what else Steve Jobs?
>> Not much more than that. From what -- I'm no doctor to be very clear and from what...
>> But would you play one on TV?
>> No, not even going to attempt. From what I understand though this sort of hormone imbalances are very tricky things to diagnose. It -- you know, can be something where you have -- you know something's wrong and you know it might be hormone related, but there are so many different variables that come into play with that kind of thing that it can be a real chore for your medical team to sort of figure out what precisely is the cause. And it sounds like that's what they've done. They've identified whatever it is that was causing Steve to lose weight far more than -- than he should have been. And supposedly they have come up with a simple and straightforward remedy, which they did not exactly say what that was, but you know they're saying that basically after three months or so Steve should be back in business.
>> And the good news from the Apple perspective is that he's going to continue to serve as the Chief Executive not...
>> That's correct.
>> We're not talking about a recurrence of the pancreatic cancer.
>> That's right.
>> That has sidelined him in the past.
>> Yes, and Tim Cook took over Apple for -- for several months after Jobs was operated on to remove pancreatic cancer. I believe it was 2004. Yes, it's not gonna happen. He's not going anywhere. He's still the CEO. He's obviously not giving the Macworld keynote, but he's not -- he's' not stepping down from his day to day responsibility.
>> Until now Apple's position has been Steve continues to service CEO and his health basically it's a private matter. Why do you think they have decided to detail what's ailing him?
>> Well, you know it's -- it's not clear. I mean I think they have finally decided that while they would like Steve's health to be a private matter, this story has just taken off to the degree where it no longer can be controlled...
>> It sure has.
>> The way they would like to control it. You know I think we saw that most clearly over the holiday break when Gizmodo put out a story claiming that Steve's health was rapidly declining.
>> Yeah.
>> I think it has come to the final straw.
>> And was totally inaccurate.
>> I mean you know the -- Apple's decision to be coy with matters of Steve's health has allowed a number of people who would like to profit from this information, to step into that void with their own sort of disinformation campaign.
>> The short sellers.
>> Exactly. To sort of manipulate the stock in that sense and I think they finally realized that whatever benefits there were to keeping it a private matter for Steve that they were outweighed by the problem is that this strategy have caused.
>> On the one hand you have the short sellers and the other hand like the Gizmodo report spurges.
>> Well, I mean I think -- I think they were told that Steve's health was in rapid decline by somebody who, you know wished that to be made public, you know and regardless of whether or not it was actually true. And they ran with it and you know that's -- that's their business. I mean that's -- the question or decision that they probably hear about, but you know I think when it comes to Apple they try to stay above the fray for a long time. And many of us had you know for a very long time, but this is just clearly evolved to the point where it's out there and it has to be discussed and this is how they've chosen to do it.
>> And today the reaction of Wall Street has been positive for the last we looked the stock was up a couple of bucks.
>> Well, you gotta review it in balance of the whole last couple of weeks though because the stock went down after their report that his health was rapidly declining. So the stock gains back the value that it lost back then. So your trading kind of a right around where you were and I think people are relieved that Apple has finally said, yes, Steve has some health problems, he does not have cancer. He does not have anything that's -- that's affecting his ability to lead the company, so I think there's some relief in that sense. I mean, I think you can argue however though that skipping the Macworld keynote, which Apple has not said was explicitly linked to the health decision, but seems pretty clear is one of Steve's biggest duties as Apple's spokesman and chief. So, you know it's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out.
>> In the New Year, new news.
>> Welcome to 2009.
>> Thanks, Tom. On behalf of CNET News, I'm Charlie Cooper.
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