“To address the last year and the year ahead, Apple CEO Tim Cook summoned corporate employees to his Cupertino Campus’s De Anza 3 auditorium.,” Mark Gurman reports for 9to5Mac. “With the company’s top executives in the first row, followed by several rows of employees, Cook spoke in his signature black, buttoned, untucked dress shirt, jeans, and sneakers.”
“Cook was reportedly pumped up during this Town Hall meeting, rallying troops amid questioning from analysts regarding Apple’s future as a global technology titan,” Gurman reports. “According to multiple people in attendance at the meeting, Cook rallied his staff by discussing Apple’s latest earnings, its competition, and its future.”
Gurman reports, “Cook addressed Apple’s Q1 2013 earnings report, which featured over 54 billion dollars in revenue, with pride. The CEO recognized the decline of Apple’s stock price, specifically in the days following Apple’s earnings announcement. With Apple floating between the world’s wealthiest and second richest company by market cap, Cook seemed unfazed by the recent drop in share price. Speaking to employees on the current controversies around Apple’s income and future, Cook reportedly told his workers and colleagues that ‘we [Apple] just had the best quarter of any technology company ever.’ … Cook also reportedly made it clear that share price is not Apple’s focus. Making new products that customers love is the priority. Revenue and share price is just a by-product of Apple’s efforts.”
Much more, including Cook discussing “iOS’s integrated, reliable experience versus Android’s fragmentation,” in the full article here.
Related article:
Tim Cook congratulates employees on another record quarter during Town Hall Q&A – January 24, 2013
A turd is also a by product of my sphincter. Cook is an idiot not get off his lazy ass and support the shareholders.
You’re wrong and don’t get Apple. Go invest in pork bellies or batteries.
I’ve been an Apple stockholder for 12 years. The day Apple focuses on me, rather than on its products and its customers, is the day I sell my stock.
I thought a turd would be more closely related to the other end of you.
Steve Jobs said exactly the same thing
Let me clarify. Steve Jobs said exactly the same thing that Tim Cook said, that Apple focusses on making great products. I’m not aware of any statements that he made regarding “turds”.
Maybe Steve said “x marks the spot” while pointing at some bird crap on the sidewalk.
Now THAT’S possible.
X marks the spot was all about Michael Dell.
I never get tired of that 😉
Can you say “Troll!”
If Apple were ever to regard maximising the AAPL price as the highest priority, then the company would be finished.
Apple succeeds by pursuing excellence. The stock market is only interested in short term results, so if Apple were to listen to Wall Street, Apple would destroy it’s future prospects. Other companies may feel obliged to obey Wall Street’s wishes, but they do so at their peril.
A well rounded CEO should prudently be concerned with ALL facets of the respective business — FYI: I am a long and have a substantial position in Apple, not overly excited about the constant pull back.
Then cut your losses and sell, or sit. Either way, Cook does not care, and we are all better for it.
Agreed.
I can’t believe people’s overreaction to Tim Cook’s private talk to Apple’s employees–the single group that needs to stay focused on insanely great products.
Honestly, I believe what passes as the concerned Apple public today is nothing more than a cover for moles of the opposition.
Just be aware that Tim simply can’t communicate anything “private” to employees that wasn’t already disclosed to the markets. When the CEO meets with employees like this it is for morale, to be seen, to have some Q&A give-and-take, but there isn’t anything new that can or will be shared. So yeah, to get over-excited about the contents of a “private” meeting is immature, actually. Every seasoned executive everywhere knows that contents of such meetings will not remain private for more than approximately 43 seconds 😉
As others have said, TIm Cook has exactly the same attitude as Steve Jobs with respect to the shareholders. He believes that the focus of the company must remain on the products and services. Shareholders have been quite happy with the exact same approach during the Steve Jobs years (let us not forget; at the end of 2007, AAPL reached $200, after which it had dropped to below $80, not to re-gain the all-time $200 of the time until 18 months later). Anyone who held AAPL bought in 2007 (even at that $200) had eventually been handsomely rewarded. Those AAPL shareholders who are actually genuinely concerned about their shares are the ones who have been holding AAPL for a while (not just a year or two, but longer). They are definitely NOT complaining (other than the possibility of getting taxed higher if they were to sell those shares). The only owners of AAPL who do complain are those who bought in during the last year or so. Such AAPL owners are of zero consequence for Apple.
As long as Apple continues to ignore shareholders and stays focused on products, shareholders will remain happy.
So Tim Cook “reportedly made it clear that share price is not Apple’s focus.” I lost several years of my income in my AAPL shares. So, Tim, no one at Apple is FOCUSING on the investors? Any other jobs not being done at Apple? Maybe Tim Cook thinks Apple is a privately held company? Tim, as a publicly held company it is Apple’s JOB to FOCUS on the interests of the Apple investors. Look it up. You can Google that on the internet these days.
Dear Jersey,
Those were Steve Jobs’ priorities too. If you don’t understand Apple’s core values, then you better put your money on some conservative company that does value share holders above everything else, like Microsoft or Dell.
Your anger should be directed at Wall Street and the complimentary system that manipulates and distorts its own short-sighted and widely publicized assumptions for its own gain.
I can’t image Steve Jobs ever obsessing over what analysts and Wall Street thought, and if he had we might not have had the cohesive products that sprang forth during his return. Tim Cook’s job is to tie all of the pieces together — not worry about Wall Street Journal pieces.
Personally, I believe that the only way Apple overcomes this load of BS from Wall Street is to put its collective nose to the grindstone as it has always done the past decade and outclass the competition. Stay long, my friend, and you will get your several years of wages back and then some.
… Tim Cook does not use Google products.
well, that’s a BIG problem. he’s never going to beat the competitor if he doesn’t understand what he’s up against. you have to know your competitor as well as you know yourself.
want proof? look at MS flounder — the leaders all wear their ignorance with pride.
Maybe the problem is that you’re a “trader” and not an “investor”. I’m an investor, and AAPL has provided me with over 1000% return on my money. If I had cried on all the dips I’ve lived through I wouldn’t have any tears left. Put your money in AAPL and leave it there, see what that does for ya.
Unless you sold your AAPL for less than you paid for them you’ve lost nothing. You haven’t lost years of income. What you didn’t do is sell at the high; same on you and only you!
“shame” not same.
It was pleasant to hear Cook say this.
Great stuff from the town meeting and may I say, wonderful stuff from those that come and post here at MDN. While I appreciate the diversity of the comments over the last few months, I am glad that there are others like me that are long on APPL, and are not worried about the dip.
Now there is one post here from Jersey-Trader who appears to be upset about share price not being Apple’s focus. Well you know over the years I have seen some great commercials coming from Apple to buy lots of insanely great products from a company that thinks different, but not one of those products (or services) was stock. From my perspective it is the stock holders’ responsibility. No one came knocking at my door to sell me APPL stock, I researched it as best I could and ultimately made up my own mind, and I don’t think I am alone with that.
The stock market is a game that is rigged but if you don’t bet you can’t win (with apologies for paraphrasing the late great Robert Heinlein). Dips come and go, but if you look at the stock performance over the years, it’s been superb.
Apple is a different company, I love their focus. Many have echoed my sentiments and to those people thank you, it’s nice to know that there are others out there who believe that the reality distortion field is still working…LOL.