Tim Cook Offered Steve Jobs His Liver, Reveals New Book [Excerpts]

Apple CEO Tim Cook offered Steve Jobs his liver for a transplant to which Steve Jobs angrily rejected despite fears he would die, reveals a new book on Jobs life.

Becoming Steve Jobs, by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, is a forthcoming book on the life of Steve Jobs which will be released on March 24.

 "One afternoon, Cook left the house feeling so upset that he had his own blood tested. He found out that he, like Steve, had a rare blood type, and guessed that it might be the same. He started doing research, and learned that it is possible to transfer a portion of a living person's liver to someone in need of a transplant. About 6,000 living-donor transplants are performed every year in the United States, and the rate of success for both donor and recipient is high. The liver is a regenerative organ. The portion transplanted into the recipient will grow to a functional size, and the portion of the liver that the donor gives up will also grow back," read an excerpt of the book, according to Fast Company.

After going through a series of tests to determine whether a partial transplant was even feasible-it was-he stopped by Jobs's home in Palo Alto to tell him the good news; Jobs refused. "He cut me off at the legs, almost before the words were out of my mouth," said Cook. "'No,' he said. 'I'll never let you do that. I'll never do that,'" Fast Company noted.

"Somebody that's selfish," Cook continues, "doesn't reply like that. I mean, here's a guy, he's dying, he's very close to death because of his liver issue, and here's someone healthy offering a way out. I said, 'Steve, I'm perfectly healthy, I've been checked out. Here's the medical report. I can do this and I'm not putting myself at risk, I'll be fine.' And he doesn't think about it. It was not, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' It was not, 'I'll think about it.' It was not, 'Oh, the condition I'm in . . .' It was, 'No, I'm not doing that!' He kind of popped up in bed and said that. And this was during a time when things were just terrible. Steve only yelled at me four or five times during the 13 years I knew him, and this was one of them."

Jobs eventually underwent a liver transplant on March 21, 2009, in Memphis.

The book also reveals that Jobs was interested in buying Yahoo.