STEVE JOBS, the driving force behind the iPod and other stylish gadgets, is said to have received a liver transplant, five years after being treated for pancreatic cancer.

Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, has long enjoyed rock-star status among American bosses, yet his long-standing illness has raised questions about the personal information shareholders should expect from a visionary executive whose input is crucial to the company’s performance.

Jobs, 54, announced last January that he was taking six months’ medical leave. Despite reports that he was considering a liver transplant, Apple would not discuss his health, fanning speculation and upsetting investors who complained that this hampered their ability to judge the company’s prospects.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Jobs had had a transplant, and was due back at work by the end of June. Although Apple would not confirm this, it seems the Journal was briefed by a company board member.

A pancreatic specialist speculated that the slow-growing tumour that was removed from Jobs’s pancreas in 2004 may have returned on his liver.

In the 1980s Jobs lost control of the company he founded in 1976 with his friend Steve Wozniak. A decade later, though, he returned to Apple in triumph to usher in a new age of stylish computer design and radical products.

His appearances at Macworld, an annual Apple convention, became legendary, as hordes of fans turned out to cheer a shrewd and innovative businessman. Yet Jobs also had a reputation for being aggressive and temperamental, and has been described as “an egomaniac”.

After removal of his tumour, Jobs told employees he would not need further treatment, but after he appeared gaunt last summer, his obituary was published in error by Bloomberg news.

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