LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs appears to be a step closer to returning to work, as a doctor gave him an "excellent prognosis" after receiving a liver transplant.

"He received a liver transplant because he was ... the sickest patient on the waiting list at the time a donor organ became available," Dr. James Eason, chief of transplantation at Methodist University Hospital Transplant Institute in Memphis, said late Tuesday. "Mr. Jobs is now recovering well and has an excellent prognosis."

Eason said in a news release posted on the hospital's Web site that when Jobs received the transplant, he was in end-stage liver disease.

The doctor made the disclosure with Jobs' permission. Jobs has been on a medical leave since January.

The Wall Street Journal reported the operation was two months ago.

Apple said only that Jobs is looking forward to returning to Apple — which he started in 1976 — at the end of June.

Wall Street has grappled with the implications of Jobs' health since August 2004, when investors learned the CEO had kept a cancer diagnosis secret until after he underwent surgery. The company's past silence on matters of Jobs' health made shareholders jittery when he appeared increasingly, even alarmingly, thin last year.