Apple released its First Quarter results today. As I suspected, they did quite well and the after hours trading on its stock reflect that (currently trading up 9% from today's close and about 12.5% from yesterday's close). A lot of sites are viewing this as a reason to show that Apple is doing quite well without Steve. Not to say that Steve was or was not a big factor in today's results, but I think if you really want to have a clear picture of how Apple does without Steve, wait a few more quarters to reach that determination. Even though Steve never wrote a line of code or created a hardware design, his "force of nature" attitude probably kept Apple from turning out crappy products these past few years. To use a very graphic analogy, whipping a horse is a much more effective method to make it to run than offering it a sugar cube. It'll be interesting to see what products Apple turns out without that particular jockey on its back. Anyone remember the Quadra and Centris? I thought so...

Was reading TechCrunch today and noticed this weird ad come up for a third time ("Make Him Fall For You" on right side). Not to say that TechCrunch readers aren't A) women, and/or B) interested in relationship advice, but it seems a little out of place amongst the other ads for web design, server hosting, and consumer electronics.

Apple's stock took a pounding after news was released that Steve Jobs would take about six months off to recover from his "hormone imbalance".

The New York Times is reporting that people familiar with Jobs' current medical treatment say it's not a recurrence of his pancreatic cancer but something that is not allowing him to absorb nutrients from his food. That's definitely a good sign and I'm glad he's taking time off to rest. It was said that stress wasn't helping in his recovery so now he can take all the time he needs without the prying eyes of the media.
 
Though Jobs is largely responsible for the turnaround of Apple almost a decade ago, I think Apple's in a current position to be fine without Jobs at the helm. As long as everyone else holds on to the ideals of making the highest quality products with no compromises that he espoused, Apple will continue to turn out winners. It was the years when Apple was led by folks more interested in profits than products that Apple was lost. With guys like Jonathan Ive and Bob Mansfield around, I think we can expect to see great products from Apple, even without Jobs steering the ship ... though it never hurts to have him in your corner.

AllThingsD is reporting that Carol Bartz (previously CEO of Autodesk) has accepted the Yahoo CEO position. Good move for her as there are only a handful of companies with iconic status in Silicon Valley (if not the country). It's interesting how CEOs tend to reflect the state of where a company is and will most likely go. When Koogle was CEO, he was basically brought in as the adult to mind the store the kids built. His tenure was marked by impressive growth but not really sure if he was the driving force behind that or more just the conductor of the train already on track to do what it was going to do. Next was Semel who was brought in because Yahoo no longer wanted to be a tech company but a mass media player with its hands in Hollywood, Madison Ave, etc. Yang's short tenure saw Yahoo try to get back to its tech roots, albeit with little or no success. What will the Bartz era bring? Probably sound management with a focus on maximizing profits and shareholder value. Whether that means trimming more fat or selling off a business unit for a pretty penny (perhaps Search to one S. Ballmer?), I'm not really sure. One thing that's certain is that Bartz is a very capable business manager, often compared to Mark Hurd over at HP. I hear he's done an ok job.
 
Of bigger concern to me is the fact that in a way, Yahoo was able to get an insider without getting an insider. In my opinion, the whole point of a new CEO was to inject new life into the company - get an outside perspective because the inside one was not working. Bartz has had a prior relationship with both Yang and Decker (sits on Cisco board with Yang, Intel board with Decker) and are good friends. Let's hope that their prior relationship doesn't prevent Bartz from doing what needs to be done.