Apparently, yesterday the Bloomberg financial news service has decided to revise its obituary of Steve Jobs, Apple CEO. Unfortunately, due to an error, the report was sent to the external wire service.

Bloomberg was very quick to retract it and in less than a minute, the obituary was replaced with a retraction.

"An incomplete story referencing Apple Inc. was inadvertently published by Bloomberg News at 4:27 p.m. New York time today," the retraction read. "The item was never meant for publication and has been retracted."

Although the obituary was retracted, the Gawker blog was quick to save the 17-page Steve Jobs obituary and publish it.

The health of charismatic Apple CEO has become a controversial subject in the past months. The first rumors have appeared in June, after Steve Jobs’ speech at WWDC.

After his speech, some major news sites and various blogs have commented about Job’s physical appearance. Apple’s CEO appears to have lost some weight and he looked a little pale.

Apple was quick to downplay the rumors and speculations regarding Steve Jobs’ health. The company has issued a statement saying that he was affected by “a common bug”. Apple’s spokesperson noted that he had received antibiotics as treatment and is now recovering.

Jobs’ health made again headlines last month after quoting an unnamed Wall Street source, the New York Post said that Apple's hedge fund investors are very worried after Steve Jobs appearance at WWDC.

The New York Post noted also that other people who have met with Jobs in the weeks surrounding the introduction of the iPhone 3G on July 11, said they came away troubled by his thin appearance.

Jobs’ health is a reason of concern, because he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2003, but Apple did not announce the illness until nine months later, in July next year. Jobs underwent a successful surgery in August 2004.

Jobs is considered by many analysts as the man who saved Apple, after he returned to the company in 1996. Jobs, who co-founded Apple, resigned in 1985. But he returned as CEO when Apple bought his company, NeXT. He became Apple’s permanent CEO in 2000.

Since his return, Steve Jobs has been involved in all Apple major achievements such as the launch of iPod and iTunes and the company’s transition to Intel-powered Macs. In 2006, after another speech also at WWDC, several news sites reported that Jobs has health problems, but Apple dismissed the information as rumors.

In late July the tech columnist Joe Nocera from The New York Times said he has spoken off-the-record with Steve Jobs. Nocera did not disclose any details about their conversation, but he said that “his [Jobs] health problems amounted to a good deal more than "a common bug," they weren't life-threatening and he doesn't have a recurrence of cancer."